Anybody who’s got the dimmest idea of what FPS video games even are has inevitably heard of Escape from Tarkov. Battlestate Games first released the notorious title in mid-2016, and it quickly earned itself quite a reputation.
Perhaps the single most hardcore game on the market, playing Tarkov feels like being kicked in the shins. Repeatedly.
Yet, many love it. In our Escape from Tarkov player count guide, we’ll tell you exactly how many… and whether you should be worried if any of your friends are among them.
Key EFT Facts (Editor’s Choice):
- Escape from Tarkov reached 200,000 concurrent players in 2020.
- …and more than 475,000 concurrent Twitch viewers in 2021.
- It was released six years ago and it’s still in beta.
- The game’s developer, Battlestate Games, boasts nearly half a million Twitch followers.
- Escape from Tarkov has more than 50 servers.
- It made $50 million in sales in 2020.
Some Basic Escape from Tarkov Info to Get You Started
Really, the main thing you need to know about Escape from Tarkov is that it’s utterly brutal.
That said, while the unforgiving gameplay mechanics are a matter of contention by themselves, look past those and you’ll find that other controversies have beleaguered the game, too.
So then, why did Escape from Tarkov get popular in the first place?
1. Escape from Tarkov has been in development for a decade.
(Source: VG247)
You read that right—Battlestate Games first began working on the title back in 2012. The studio first released an alpha version in 2016 and then a closed beta in 2017, which it has been continuously updating since.
There’s still no information on when a full release might happen, though. Luckily, Escape from Tarkov’s popularity has anything but dwindled, so fans don’t have to worry about the devs suddenly abandoning it.
2. Twitch banned Battlestate Games in 2019.
(Source: Polygon)
So, when did Escape from Tarkov get so popular? It attracted a lot of attention from the beginning, but in late 2019, the game’s viewership on Twitch skyrocketed. That happened thanks to a big new update release combined with some significant marketing efforts—devs also ran a Twitch Drops promotion that allowed players to get in-game rewards for watching the stream.
In the midst of all this, a dev from Battlestate Games took out a real gun, aimed it at his head and pulled the trigger, simulating suicide. Yes, this happened on camera, during a livestream, in real life (not in-game!). No wonder Twitch suspended the channel.
Luckily, top Tarkov streamers still average 20k viewers each, so the game remained popular on the platform regardless.
3. Battlestate Games boasts nearly half a million Twitch followers.
(Source: Twitch)
Despite the studio’s real-gun-fiasco, Twitch eventually reinstated its channel, which now has 493,000 followers. Battlestate Games has continued to regularly run similar Twitch Drops promotions, with none of the devs feigning suicide since.
We hope they’ll come up with less vile pranks in the future.
4. Escape from Tarkov has more than 50 servers.
(Source: GamesFinder)
The server population on Tarkov varies wildly by region. While some places like North America and Europe have dozens of servers, all packed with players, other areas such as South America and Africa have just one server for the entire continent. Russia is considered a separate region and still boasts at least eight servers.
The good news is that as EFT’s player count has risen, so has the number of servers. In fact, Battlestate Games has been consistently investing in opening new ones all over the world.
Tarkov Players, or Those Who Play Games to Suffer
You’d think games are meant to be fun and relaxing… Well, sometimes, that’s far from true.
Case in point—“a Tarkov player” is what comes up under “masochist” in the dictionary.
Naturally, it’s entirely possible that we are just really bad at the game. The more likely explanation, considering how many people still play Escape from Tarkov, though, is that they enjoy a real challenge and the sense of accomplishment once they win.
No participation trophies here.
5. Escape from Tarkov hit 200,000 concurrent players in 2020.
(Source: PCGamesN)
Patch 0.12.6 came on May 28, 2020, and with it—a new record. The update brought significant changes, such as new trading rules and the introduction of binaural audio, which makes it easier to tell what’s going on around you based on sound cues alone.
Lead developer Nikita Buyanov personally announced the good news in a Reddit thread, saying Escape from Tarkov’s player count broke 200k people online at the same time. He also asked for Redditors’ opinions and feedback on the update.
6. In just two weeks, Tarkov fans watched 82.5 million hours of content on Twitch.
(Source: NME)
As per tradition, Battlestate Games hold a Twitch Drops event during the holiday season. While it attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers every year, this past one was the biggest yet.
The Escape from Tarkov player base spent a combined 82,492,676 hours on Twitch from December 24, 2021 to January 9, 2022!
7. EFT streams peaked at 475,546 concurrent viewers on December 28, 2021.
(Source: TwitchTracker)
Wondering how big Escape from Tarkov is?
Millions-of-people big.
Over the course of the New Year event, just the official Battlestate Games channel attracted more than 1.6 million unique visitors. Furthermore, 475,546 people tuned in simultaneously on the 28th of December. Few games ever reach such numbers.
“Fun” fact: 57,365,985 players’ characters were killed during the event.
8. Queues reached 86,000 during the holiday season.
(Source: AltChar)
How many people play Escape from Tarkov? How about we tell you how many had to wait to even get to play.
We already talked about the recent event and how big it was on Twitch… but it was also massive in-game. The 0.12.12 patch introduced a new map for the first time in years and reset all player progress (“wipe”), so an upsurge was to be expected.
Still, Tarkov’s player count went through the ceiling when the update went live in December, with ~86,000 players finding themselves waiting in queue to enter the game just on European servers. While other regions aren’t as big, NA is a close second with a similar population.
Considering the many dozens of thousands more already in-game trying to survive the brutal raids, the total number of Escape from Tarkov active players daily during the festive season was likely in the hundreds of thousands.
A Couple of Spicy Escape from Tarkov News You Might’ve Missed
From serious money talk to trivial tittle-tattle about the game and its creator, we’ve got all the recent stories worth reading. If you’re the kind of gamer who spends more time on Reddit than actually playing, you’ll love this section.
9. Battlestate Games made $50 million in sales in 2020.
(Source: Dun & Bradstreet)
Escape from Tarkov revenue information is difficult to come by since Battlestate Games is a privately owned company and does not share much publicly. Still, research and analytics companies have collected substantial financial data and released reports.
The latest one we could find states the game made nearly $50 million in sales in 2020, though ultimately, this only amounted to ~$320,000 in actual profit.
10. Battlestate Games officially comprises just one employee.
(Source: GOV.UK)
The company is registered in the UK and, while it’s private, a detailed “Annual Report and Financial Statements” document is available on a governmental website. It turns out that Battlestate Games technically consists of one single employee, a woman by the name of Ludmila Lipskaya.
The company’s supposed Chief Operating Officer Nikita Buyanov, who often interacts with the Tarkov player base on social media, is only mentioned as a “related person considered to have significant influence over the entity” who has “rendered services” worth nearly $10 million.
11. Escape from Tarkov is heading for the esports scene.
(Source: Escape from Tarkov)
You’re likely thinking, “is Escape from Tarkov even an esport.” The answer is dependable on what you consider an esport.
It’s definitely not on the level of Dota 2 or CS:GO, which have awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in prizes. A competitive scene does exist, though, even if it’s primarily run by the community. Popular streamers have continuously organized events, the most recent of which “Evasion Trios,” held in October 2021, had a prize fund of $18,000.
Wrap Up
If you were worried about Tarkov’s player count, we hope we convinced you you needn’t be.
Many gamers consider Escape from Tarkov something of a Dark Souls meets the FPS genre title. We think it’s worse… at least in Dark Souls you can choose to go offline. In Tarkov, there is no escape from fellow gamers’ bloodthirst.
Needless to say, this is precisely what makes EFT’s gameplay so intense and differentiates it from the dozens of shooters flooding the market. It’s also why the game has gained a significant cult following.
This concludes our Escape from Tarkov player count guide. We hope you’ll rest easy now knowing you aren’t the only one who’s into hardcore games.
Unaware that life beyond the internet exists, Nick is poking servers and control panels, playing with WordPress add-ons, and helping people get the hosting that suits them.
