Escape from Tarkov is the spearhead extraction shooter that has dominated the genre for a decade. It’s known as one of the most punishing games ever made, striking fear into the hearts of casual gamers worldwide since entering the scene in 2016.
Despite the game’s popularity, it’s pretty tough to get an exact number for how many people play Escape from Tarkov. In this guide, I’ve broken down the resources I have available to determine the most accurate Escape from Tarkov player count possible.
Read on to get the numbers we have.
Is Escape from Tarkov Popular?
There’s almost no information regarding the Escape from Tarkov player count that’s accessible to the public. Battlestate Games, the developer behind the extraction shooter, keeps a tight lid on the data.
However, in August 2025, the head of the studio at Battlestate Games offered a rare glimpse into the player numbers of Escape from Tarkov.
On a Saturday evening at around 9 PM (BST), 45,000 people were playing PvP in Escape from Tarkov.
As Escape from Tarkov is only available on PC through Battlestate Games’ launcher (until the Steam launch), there’s only one number to look at, but that number does not include PvE players. It was previously mentioned that the player count between PvE and PvP can be as balanced as 50-50, so it’s safe to assume another 45,000 were playing PvE at that time.
That means that Escape from Tarkov had 90,000 concurrent players at a peak time on the weekend.
In numerical terms, that means that Escape from Tarkov is very popular, and it’s also safe to assume that the number swells when a special event or a ‘wipe’ hits.
How to View Escape from Tarkov Player Count
The only way to determine the Escape from Tarkov player count is to look at how many people are playing the game on Steam and extrapolate from there.
At the time of writing, Escape from Tarkov boasted 27,381 players on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 35,435 and an all-time peak of 47,800. Given that Steam is a minority platform for Escape from Tarkov, it’s relatively safe to assume that it represents only around 20 – 30% of the player base.
That means that, at the time of writing, almost 100,000 concurrent players may have been populating Escape from Tarkov; we just can’t prove that in the numbers. It’s also important to stress that Tarkov’s 1.0 update dropped two weeks ago, as this is being written, which will be ‘inflating’ the numbers somewhat.
Let me know on the Insider Gaming Discord server if you’ve got a better way to determine Tarkov’s player count.
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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