Extraction shooters are pretty fun. I’ve only played a handful over my gaming career, but while they’re not exactly ‘My Thing’, I certainly see the appeal. There’s something about executing a high-risk, high-reward plan and having to improvise when things inevitably break bad that gets the blood pumping. It’s the kind of genre that perfectly embodies the ‘okay, just one more game’ mentality.
That all said, when did everything become an extraction shooter?The genre has been popular for a long time, but 2025 feels like the year of the extraction game, with studios announcing new entries in the genre left and right.
Oops! All Extraction Shooters
There’s been a lot of extraction shooter news over the last few weeks. Bungie finally held ashowcase for Marathonand also hosted a closed alpha test for itto mixed reception; Arc Raiders is set for release later this year andhas had some solid buzz thanks to a few previews; Mycopunk isan indie take on the extraction genrerevealed by Devolver Digital this week;Helldivers 2 has continued to maintain a steady player basefor its in-game events, and a new report claims that one of the gamescanceled by EA amidst its latest rounds of layoffswas a Titanfall extraction shooter.
On top of all of that, extraction games have been reimagined in the indie horror space withgames like Repo, Lethal Company, and Content Warning becoming massive hits on Steam. It feels like everywhere you look, there’s an extraction game to be found.
I understand the appeal of the genre, but it feels like it’s a trend from a few years ago that, out of nowhere, made a big return. The other odd thing about it is that I’m not so sure the sudden influx of extraction games is going to be sustainable for publishers.
Adding To An Already Saturated Genre
It’s interesting to pay attention to multiplayer gaming trends because it seems like the only games that are actually successful are the ones that get in early. We’ve seen countless failed battle royale games try to geta slice of the Fortnite/Apex Legends/Warzonepie and struggle to find an audience because people already have their go-to games. When someone has put an untold number of hours into a game and spent almost as much money on skins thatmake them look like Sabrina Carpenteror Nicki Minaj, it’s an uphill battle to convince them to leave that game in favor of a new one, especially if it doesn’t have their favorite popstars.
These new extraction shooters seem like they’re going to face the same problems that battle royale games faced in the early 2020s. Fans of the genre have already put their time intogames like Escape From Tarkov, Hunt Showdown, andRainbow Six Siege. They might divert their attention for a weekend or two to try out Marathon or Arc Raiders, but unless those games are able to set themselves apart in a meaningful way, I struggle to imagine them sticking around long-term.
I’m not praying for the downfall of any of these games. I think Marathon looks pretty good, and I took the day off from work to mournthe loss of a new Titanfall gamewhen I heard the news, but I just can’t figure out why extraction shooters have become the new go-to genre when it comes time for a publisher to announce a new multiplayer game.
Who knows, maybe I’m wrong and the 2025 extraction revival will go down in gaming history as the year the games industry fixed itself, but that feels unlikely. If you need me, I’m taking some more time off to keep mourning Titanfall.
