While current heavy hitters like Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 are dominating the Steam charts, a smaller, cutesier, single player extraction shooter is pulling impressive figures. Escape from Duckov–not related to Battlestate’s Escape from Tarkov–has recently announced that it has sold more than three million copies since its launch on October 16th. And although its current player count has stabilized to something very reasonable for title like itself, at one point last month it had over 300,000 concurrent players.
What’s doubly impressive about this is that developers Team Soda did not achieve even remotely similar results with their two previous games, Snake Force and Soda Crisis, both of which, while receiving affirmative feedback, only had few hundred players at their peak. And Chinese publisher Bilibili, while not a stranger to the gaming industry, is most reputable for hosting a video-sharing website akin to Youtube. They’ve definitely had success with other titles under their name, but Escape from Duckov might be one of their few breakout hits, at least on Steam.
At first glance, the catalyst for Escape from Duckov’s apparent success may seem elusive, as there’s not a concrete, singular reason for why it has done so well for a game of its size. But I think the easiest conclusion to come to is simply that players just seem to love it. The proof is in the pudding with the Overwhelmingly Positive 95% rating it has on the Steam store, but besides that, the game expertly fills a niche that many extraction shooters don’t: it’s completely single player. And on top of that, it’s quite forgiving compared to its often brutal competitors. Reading through the positive reviews of Escape from Duckov on Steam shows that players concur; and many praise the game for creating a relaxed method of enjoying extraction gameplay, free from all-or-nothing PvP encounters and the live service grind that comes with them. This is a rather pleasant surprise, considering that with a title that so clearly parodies Escape from Tarkov, there is seemingly a game of actual substance underneath its cheekiness.