Shroud has a bold prediction for the future of ARC Raiders

Twitch streamer Shroud has made a bold claim about the future of ARC Raidersthe new third-person extraction shooter from The finals developer Embark Studios, which says it will be bigger than Fortnite. Despite what some believed ARC Raiders was destined to fail when launched pinched Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 last year, Embark has achieved great success with its second title. Although that success has not quite reached the same level as FortniteShroud thinks it's not far off.

For those who may not be in tune with the many Twitch streamers and content creators, Shroud is a former esports pro known for being one of the best Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players around. Nowadays, Shroud, whose real name is Michael Grzesiek, is known to be a popular Twitch streamer and content creator who plays titles like Apex Legends, PUBGand lastly, ARC Raiders. Like many streamers, Shroud regularly goes viral for his questionable views and opinions, and he's had plenty to say about Embark's latest game. Late last year, Grzesiek accused The Game Awards of being “rigged” because of it ARC Raiders was not nominated for game of the year. However, it was nominated for Best Multiplayer Game, which it won.

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Shroud may have been disappointed by that ARC Raiders was not nominated for Game of the Year, but the extraction game has received many other awards and glowing reviews since its release in October. When writing, user reviews for ARC Raiders on Steam are “highly positive” with over 130,000 ratings. On Metacritic, the shooter has a respectable rating of 86 for official critic reviews and 7.8 for user reviews. These positive reviews are also reflected in the game's player count, as SteamDB shows that the title is holding steady, regularly peaking at around 300,000 concurrent users and remains one of the platform's most played games. Of course, this doesn't take into account the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but it will likely do just as well on consoles.

Shroud believes ARC Raiders will be bigger than Fortnite

It's fair to say ARC Raiders has taken the gaming world by storm in recent months, and Shroud now seems to be going as far as to say it could be bigger than Fortnite. During a recent live stream, the content creator said ARC Raiders is “definitely the biggest game since Fortnite.” He then went on to suggest that the only other games to come close Fortnitesuccesses have been Valorant and Apex Legendsbut that ARC Raiders is already bigger than both of them and will even be bigger than Epic Games' hit Battle Royale “as time goes on”.

The response from fans seems to have been mixed, with some saying Shroud is “100% accurate” and others simply saying he's “wrong” and “delusional”. One user even said that nothing will ever beat Fortnite because Epic Games is “just too good at innovation.”

ARC Raiders be greater than Fortnite is a bold claim for a variety of reasons. Epic Games' free-to-play battle royale title has been going strong for over 8 years now and has amassed more than 650 million registered accounts by December 2025 (according to Demand Sage). Producing billions in revenue and millions of active players every day, ARC Raiders would need to find unprecedented levels of success to overtake Fortnite. While Shroud may believe this is possible, there is one major factor that will hold it back from achieving such a feat: the $40 price tag. Unlike Fortnitewhich is completely free to play, ARC Raiders drastically limiting its reach by being a premium title.

So while Fortnite will likely continue to hold on to its crown, ARC Raiders has already dethroned the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield 6. Many expected a new IP to be scuttled by two existing franchises, but ARC Raiders has managed to retain 91% of its Steam player base over the past few months, while Battlefield 6 have lost 85% of their Call of Dutys player numbers are even more depressing, as the launch of Black Ops 7 seemingly failed to make any kind of significant jump in players for Call of Duty HQ app when it was released in November.