Escape from Tarkov 1.0 launch hit by server issues and negative Steam reviews

Escape from Tarkov has left beta and launched version 1.0 on PC (BSG launcher and Steam) on November 15, 2025, after around eight years of paid testing. The extraction shooter was immediately hit by server problems, leaving numerous players unable to log in for more than ten hours and pushing the game’s user reviews into the “Mostly Negative” range.

After nine years of development, Escape from Tarkov was finally released on November 15, 2025, as version 1.0 (with a fresh wipe), available on PC only via the existing Battlestate Games client and Steam. The launch marks the culmination of a lengthy testing period that began in 2017, transforming Tarkov into what should be a fully developed extraction shooter.

However, the EFT release was overwhelmed by technical issues. Despite 24 hours of downtime prior to the 1.0 version launch, Tarkov’s servers were unable to handle the influx of players on launch day, leaving many users unable to start playing for more than 10 hours.

Battlestate later pushed a technical update to address networking and login problems, stating that load on its data centers had stabilised but warning that some players could still experience launcher and in-game errors, with issues persisting across the weekend. The studio also thanked players for their patience and promised in-game compensation for everyone affected.

Tarkov Steam player numbers and reviews

Since there’s no way to rate the game in the Battlestate Games launcher, and existing owners didn’t receive a copy of the extraction shooter on Steam, most users on Steam were unfamiliar with the typical issues that usually come with major Tarkov patches.

Those issues quickly showed up in the Steam rating. At launch day, Escape from Tarkov on Steam received roughly 20% positive user reviews and a “Mostly Negative” label, with around 1,000 negative reviews citing server errors, queues, and account-related problems.

At the same time, interest in Tarkov’s release is there. Despite the game having existed for more than 8 years in a separate launcher, SteamDB data lists an all-time peak of about 47,800 concurrent players on November 16, and around 500,000 copies of the game owned by Steam users (previously, the extraction shooter hit 750,000 wishlists).

According to Nikita Buyanov, head of Battlestate Games, the overall count of concurrent players near peak online was 297,000. “Our total online presence is currently 297,000, of which 40,000 are Steam-based. Old players are still in place”.

Steam review bombing, refunds, and bans controversy

Escape from Tarkov also sparked controversy around its Steam launch. Several users on Reddit claimed they bought the game on Steam specifically to leave a negative review, then refunded it, only to later find their main Battlestate accounts banned.

Cases like this can overlap with chargeback and fraud protections, which are common in large live-service games with in-game paid content, but the situation looks unclear from the outside. Nikita Buyanov’s public comment on the topic was that bans are only issued for cheating.

Tarkov 1.0 update overview

The 1.0 update itself is positioned as a significant milestone. Battlestate added a non-linear story campaign with a full tutorial and structured early progression. The campaign is tied to new main quests (most of the old ones are now listed as side quests), and has four different endings that conclude on the new Terminal map. After escaping from Tarkov (or not, depending on the ending), the player can roll the profile back and keep playing.

Trader interactions were expanded, key story beats now use short 3D scenes with animations and voiceover when you meet or report to traders, and some quest hand-offs are delivered through these sequences instead of static portraits and text.

On the content side, 1.0 introduces Terminal as the story finale location where players are supposed to escape from Tarkov and a new raid map built around close-quarters combat in docks and warehouses. There are also new AI factions: AF (RUAF, to be specific) in a few key places on regular maps and Black Division, tied to late-game and Terminal content.

Several existing locations are updated, with Interchange getting the largest rework. The outdoor area around the back of OLI has been expanded with additional covers, side routes, and new loot spots. Another unexpected addition is Tagilla’s hideout, and this boss can spawn on Interchange now. Extraction zones near Emercom and Railway are expanded, and a new exfill is added on the Interchange outskirts.

Core gameplay changes

Core mechanics are adjusted. Armor and ballistics are rebalanced once again, the economy is tightened with more money sinks inside the main quest line (which will show pretty early), and overall progression is linked more directly to campaign milestones.

A few new weapons have been added, hidden behind tedious unlock quests:

• TKPD 9.3×64 carbine;
• AS Val MOD.4 9×39 special assault rifle;
• AK-308 7.62×51 assault rifle;
• CGNL NL545 assault rifle (DI and GP);
• Marlin MXLR .308 ME lever-action rifle;
• M16A1 and M16A2 assault rifles.

While some Hardcore wipe settings were added to the release version, movement and weight penalties (inertia) remain closer to the softer Road to Release / Softcore patch.

Softcore-Hardcore patch mix

Hardcore Wipe and Road to Release pushed Tarkov in different directions, and 1.0 fell between them in terms of specific gameplay settings.

Initially, in Hardcore Wipe:

• The Flea Market was completely disabled.
• Rare loot and crafting were significantly nerfed.
• Hideout upgrade requirements were doubled.
• Access to maps was restricted (Ground Zero, Factory, and Customs were accessible with the rest being accessed via transit).
• Currency, ammo, and almost all medical supplies were prohibited from being stored in secure containers.
• Players were left with level-one traders and no main quests other than the daily and weekly ones.

Road to Release did the opposite: early Flea Market, reduced inertia and aimpunch, increased weight limit and loot, and accelerated skill and raid experience gain.

In the release version, Tarkov keeps several Softcore changes but brings back stricter progression. Reduced inertia and a higher carry weight limit from the Road to Release patch are now part of the core game. At the same time, maps unlock gradually now, closer to the Hardcore wipe structure, and players cannot put meds or ammo into the secure container.

The Flea Market was also reworked: access to most items is pushed to higher levels, and overall trading options are more restricted than in most pre-Softcore wipes.

Tarkov post-launch hotfixes

Following the release of 1.0, Battlestate rolled out a series of technical updates to address key issues.

BSG fixed incorrect texture quality after visiting traders when the “Reduced Texture Resolution in Streets of Tarkov” mode was enabled, a bug with an incomplete character model in the hideout, stutters during switching to the traders’ screen from the hideout, incorrect lighting on Jaeger when SSR is active, and the appearance of main menu elements while searching for a match.

Some PostFX settings have been temporarily disabled, teleportation and flying (literally) scavs have been fixed, and the DLSS version has been updated with a recommendation to change the preset if the optics reticle isn’t correct.

At the same time, BSG specifically acknowledged issues with loading the game through the launcher and Steam, “228” errors when interacting with merchants, and incorrect lighting for all merchants. Developers also warned about a software conflict with Nvidia Smooth Motion and advised simply turning off this option.

A separate set of changes concerns hardcore restrictions. After the 1.0 release, medicine was initially prohibited from being stored in secure containers, which caused community backlash. Nikita Buyanov launched a poll, “Medicine in a secure container: yes or no?”, and within a day, BSG rolled the meds balance back to the pre-Hardcore: healing items can now be stored in a secure container again.

Healing items can be in the secure container now
byu/Benjiiiee inEscapefromTarkov

Compensation for launch issues

According to the official announcement, all players will receive compensation for the 1.0 launch issues in the form of BEAR Classic and USEC Night Patrol clothing sets, depending on the chosen faction. Previously, these skins were available for real money as vanity DLC.

Those who have already purchased these skins are entitled to a separate in-game reward, delivered via SYSTEM email. According to community reports, the compensation of 1,000,000 in-game rubles is awarded to owners of these packs.

Tarkov Twitch Drops and stats

On Twitch, Escape from Tarkov’s 1.0 launch created a big spike in hours watched and pushed the game back to the top. On November 16, Tarkov briefly climbed to second place on Twitch with more than 200,000 live viewers, behind only Counter-Strike 2.

According to Stream Charts, November 2025 has already generated more than 16 million hours watched, with a peak of about 380,000 concurrent viewers during the first weekend, compared to sub-25,000 concurrent viewers in September and October.

Over the last 7 days, TwitchTracker ranks Escape from Tarkov as the third-most-watched game on the platform, with roughly 93,000 average viewers and nearly 4.8 percent of total Twitch share, a jump of over 1,600% week-on-week.

This launch surge still sits below Tarkov’s all-time record of around 570,000 peak viewers set during the New Year’s 2023 Twitch Drops event, but it is the biggest spike the game has seen since then.

Twitch Drops

The current Twitch Drops campaign is split into two parts. Standard watch-time Twitch Drops for Escape from Tarkov are active and working: viewers who link their Tarkov and Twitch accounts can earn free in-game items simply by watching participating streams during the launch window, and the event will run from the release into early December.

The subscription-based “Support-a-Streamer” campaign, which was supposed to grant extra rewards for gifting or buying Twitch subscriptions, did not start correctly.

After popular Tarkov streamers like Pestily and LVNDMARK pulled in thousands of subscriptions in minutes, Battlestate acknowledged that the paid Twitch Drops were broken and has postponed the campaign. According to BSG, the paid Drops event will be relaunched later, with the window adjusted so viewers do not miss out on rewards.

Pestily interview with Nikita Buyanov

In an interview with Pestily (notable Tarkov streamer), Nikita Buyanov described 1.0 as a full-fledged story release. The game will feature a primary storyline with multiple endings tied to completing missions and side quests; one of these is considered “the best” and involves actually escaping Tarkov, which will be tied to a prestige system.

Nikita specifically stated that achieving the best endings will be difficult and “not everyone will be able to escape Tarkov”, estimating the percentage of players who will see the best ending at a few percent.

He also mentioned a strengthened, more intrusive anti-cheat system (RMT-related cheating remains one of the major painpoints of the game), plans for a companion app and an open API for third-party services, as well as a focus on monetization exclusively through cosmetics and stash expansions. Long-term plans include DLCs that build on clans and alliances as the foundation for future seasons.

Tarkov and ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders continues to show substantial player numbers, beat its own records, and keep extraction shooters in view. Since launch, the game has sold over 4 million copies and reached around 480,000 concurrent players on Steam, with peaks above 700,000 across all platforms.

The North Line update and the Breaking New Ground event with the Stella Montis map kept ARC high in charts on Steam and Twitch, which indirectly helps Tarkov: the genre label “extraction shooter” is most visiable it ever been, new players have a clearer entry point before they look at other extraction shooters, and Steam’s “Similar to games you’ve played” enhancing visibility of Escape from Tarkov in the store.

The same ARC event window overlaps with Escape from Tarkov’s 1.0 and Steam launch. A major update, a new map, and active events in ARC can pull part of the potential audience away from Tarkov in the short term, simply because both compete for time from players.

We cannot quantify that impact: Tarkov’s own launcher is not in Steam statistics, ARC and Tarkov differ in pacing and difficulty, and they serve somewhat different segments (casual retrofuturistic shooter vs hardcore military simulation) under the same genre label. Any direct claim that ARC took a specific share of Tarkov’s players or vice versa would be speculation.

About Escape from Tarkov

Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore PvPvE extraction shooter for Windows developed and published by Battlestate Games, released in version 1.0 on November 15, 2025, on both Steam and the studio’s standalone launcher.

The current EFT rating on Steam is “Mixed” for English reviews, with 46% of 3,926 users recommending the game. For all languages, EFT sits at “Mostly Negative” with 31% positive reviews out of 20,159 overall.

One notable detail is the recommended hardware: Escape from Tarkov lists 64 GB of RAM, which is above the average even for recent AAA releases. This unusually high recommendation is primarily due to long-standing memory leak issues that have persisted for several years.

The developers describe it as a highly realistic military simulator, a “Hazardous Environment Combat Simulator” (HECS). The game entered closed beta in July 2017 and remained in beta for more than eight years before the full release.