Extraction Shooters Explained: Niche FPS Genre Publishers Misread

Let’s start by saying the quiet part out loud. The extraction shooter genre and its popularization have been a disaster for the game industry. Big and indie publishers alike keep trying to squeeze out their own takes on the genre within the already oversaturated live-service PvP shooter market.

Chasing investor-appealing trends, studios end up wasting thousands of development hours, usually to deliver a mediocre result that loses most of its player base within the first six months. Other outcomes range from mid-development cancellations to games being abandoned just weeks after launch. Developers are laid off, studios shut down, and entire teams spend years building games—only to watch them flop on release or get quietly buried.

And all this, while the genre’s two most well-known and successful titles—Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown 1896—were never even intended as extraction shooters to begin with.

So, let’s look at what defines this genre today, the history of its appearance and evolution, popular standalone games and game modes within larger titles (including those that failed or were cancelled), and why extraction shooters are so challenging to develop in the first place. In the end, we’ll explore what might come next, while AAA publishers and games like Marathon continue trying to bring the extraction shooter experience to a broader audience, whether the audience actually wants it or not.

What Is an Extraction Shooter?

PvPvE formula

At its core, an extraction shooter is a high-stakes PvPvE experience built around completing PvE objectives for permanent progression and loot, highlighted by rare but intense PvP encounters—or, put simply: get in, get loot, get out. Players are dropped into a map where they explore, gather loot, either avoid or engage in PvE or PvP encounters (depending on their objectives and playstyle), and eventually extract at designated points, if they manage to survive.

Extraction is the win

Traditionally, in shooters, victory is tied to a fixed objective. In battle royales, it’s being the last team standing (or player, for solos). However, in extraction shooters, victory is the extraction itself. Survival is the primary goal and the real measure of progress because a successful escape determines your resources and loot, and, therefore, how well-equipped you’ll be for the next match.

Permanent loss is part of the experience

This brings us to a key feature of the genre—persistent loot that’s always at risk (and in some cases, your character is at risk too). Outside the core gameplay loop, players usually have access to a stash or hideout with storage and a shop, where extracted loot is kept and resources can be spent on new gear for the next raid.

Dying in a match typically means losing all the loot you carry (though some games offer some sort of insurance that gives you a chance to recover it or receive compensation). And in Hunt, you even lose the characters themselves, along with their perks and progression.

Economy between matches

This leads us to the next point: extraction shooters often feature a global economy fueled by the players. Items looted in raids directly impact market dynamics (especially in Tarkov, where the in-game economy can be as brutal as the firefights).

But not every game follows this model. Hunt: Showdown stands out as a notable exception, where loot and economy mechanics are streamlined in favor of a more accessible experience, without a complex market and inventory micromanagement.

Deep customization

When it comes to gear, most extraction shooters give you plenty of room to customize your character’s equipment and weapons with modular setups. How deep that customization goes usually depends on the game—mil-sims tend to go all-in with detailed attachments and gear variety, while others stick to a more standardized approach to customization that works across most weapons and loadouts.

Meta progression

Now let’s talk about permanent progression and quests. Extraction shooters usually feature a roguelite-style progression tied to completion of specific conditions—whether that’s quests, contracts, challenges, or just a battle pass grind. Achieving these goals can level up or grant small bonuses to your character, unlock new weapons and gear in the shop, or offer minor perks (like an extra medkit at the start of each raid)—it all depends on the game.

Extracting takes more than raw firepower

Information and game knowledge are just as valuable in extraction shooters, relying purely on twitch reflexes often isn’t enough. Unlike more straightforward skills (like memorizing smoke lineups in CS), these games require not only an understanding of map layouts (or at least having one open on the second screen). You are expected to learn enemy and item spawn locations (stuff like this is more typical of MMOs or RPGs), and real-time economy—deciding whether it’s viable to drop something useful in combat for an item you need for a quest. Choosing whether to fight or avoid engagement with elite AI enemies or other players is part of every match. It’s all about having the right information and the judgment to make the right calls, fast.

“Friendly?” The social side of extraction shooters

Last but not least—the social aspect. Extraction shooters usually feature proximity voice chat. While it can sometimes lead to unwanted toxicity, it’s still very much a part of the experience. And no, it isn’t intended only to vent after an unlucky death.

In most games (Hunt: Showdown, for example), it’s often just a source of laughs, which adds on to the experience in its own right. Or, if you’re lucky, enemy callouts might even help you with positioning. But in more complex titles (EFT, DMZ, etc.), proximity chat can lead to unexpected situations: peaceful disengagements, temporary alliances, sudden betrayals.

Voice adds a ton of depth, because the main goal isn’t to kill—it’s to extract. And if both parties understand that, they can negotiate a safe passage or even work together, which is incredibly cool because of the rarity of such interactions in PvP games. This becomes especially great during tough PvE events, where cooperation can make or break the raid. Proximity chat also works in simpler situations, like when you’re just trying to finish an early-game quest and run into a fully geared squad. Sometimes, talking your way out is your best (and only) option.

The extraction shooter genre, summed up

At the heart of every match lies a gameplay loop filled with tension and constant opposition of risk versus reward, built around PvE and PvP encounters. Every decision has real consequences—extract now or push for another objective, risking it all. It’s this constant pressure that keeps players on edge from start to finish.

Outside the match, extraction shooters rely on global systems (in-game economy, long-term progression, stash management, and loadout customization). So even between matches, your decisions directly impact how well you’ll perform later on.

It all creates a feedback loop that’s as exhausting as it is addictive.

Origins of the Extraction Shooter Genre

I’ll skip the detailed history of various game modes in Arma, the rise of DayZ, and the extensive modding scene around S.T.A.L.K.E.R.—that topic deserves a separate article—but it’s worth noting that all of them helped shape what would eventually become the extraction shooter genre. Instead, let’s start with Ubisoft and The Division.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Developed by Massive Entertainment and released in March 2016, the game is a full-priced MMO looter shooter, available across PC and major consoles. But for the first time in AAA shooter development, it featured a PvPvE game mode—Dark Zone. It wasn’t an extraction shooter in the modern sense, but it introduced many of the genre’s cornerstones: a combined PvP and PvE space with valuable loot, high tension, and loot extraction mechanics. While death didn’t strip players of their own gear, everything found in the Dark Zone—contaminated items—was lost unless successfully extracted. Players had to decide whether to trust others or go rogue, with the main goal to safely extract loot, all while AI enemies and other players added constant pressure.

Survival

But the main breakthrough came later, in November 2016, when the DLC introduced a new game mode—Survival. Although many compared it to a battle royale, the mode had nearly all the hallmarks of an extraction shooter and felt much closer to that concept in spirit.

All players started with nothing but a pistol—no warm clothing (you would quickly freeze in the blizzard), no medicine (you were infected and dying from a virus), and no gear. The equal starting conditions made it look somewhat like a battle royale. Since nothing was brought in from the main game, there was no loss of personal loot, but anything found during the session was lost if you failed to extract. Victory was defined by a successful extraction, and multiple teams could extract in the same match. Items and containers recovered in the mode were carried over into the main game.

Teams of up to four players were allowed, with a maximum of 24 players per match. Another notable feature was its fairly complex matchmaking system. First, the mode was split into two variants: a pure PvE mode with PvP disabled, and a full PvPvE mode. In PvE, incomplete squads could invite solo players they met during the session—a feature later adopted by Call of Duty: Warzone’s DMZ. In PvP, matchmaking was separated between solos (so, a 24-player free-for-all) and traditional squad-based matchmaking. With an incomplete squad, you could either fill it with random players or lock it and go in short-handed.

Missed opportunity

The game mode was popular, but Ubisoft missed the chance to capitalize on its success—Survival was never made free to attract new players into the main game, and it never returned in the sequel or as a standalone title. Even today, almost nine years later, matches can still be found, though the servers are often more than half-empty and the PvE variant remains the more active of the two.

Both the Dark Zone and Survival mode showed that an extraction-style gameplay loop can work remarkably well as part of a larger game.

Escape from Tarkov

The cornerstone of this article—and one of my main games for the better part of the past six years. A premium title from Battlestate Games studio, available only on PC, Escape from Tarkov is now wildly successful. It’s a highly realistic military simulator, self-described as a Hazardous Environment Combat Simulator (HECS). And no, I’m not going into detail about the gameplay itself—every basic aspect you need to know is already covered in the “What Is an Extraction Shooter?” section. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting parts.

How Tarkov handles matchmaking

Depending on the map size, a raid can have anywhere from 7 to 14 players. Groups can range from solo players to full squads of five. That’s it—no other limits. Matchmaking is completely random. And somehow, it works.

First off, without getting into the specifics of the damage system, the time to kill is very short—almost any shot to an unprotected head will kill a player. And if the head is protected, there are plenty of other options. Second, large squads generate a lot of noise (both in comms and the environment). They’re easier to detect, and if needed, easier to flank or evade. Because of this, solo players always have a chance against larger groups, even if some more recent changes have made winning a 1vX fight less likely. The current sweet spot for squad size is 2-3 players, but solo play is still entirely viable.

The long road to Tarkov

Development began as early as 2011/12; it took almost six years to reach a working beta in 2017, and three more years before the game functioned properly for most of the community. The dev team wasn’t exactly small: around 40 people at the start, over 80 by the end of 2023, and likely even more now. Before the start of sales in 2016 with a closed alpha, the project was funded almost entirely by the studio’s founder, Nikita Buyanov. The developers pushed Unity to its limits to build custom netcode, and major server issues weren’t resolved until 2020.

Tarkov is probably not the best average example, though, since it also features realistic physics, ballistics and gunplay, extensive environmental interactions, and AI bots treated, from the technical side, almost like real players—so a 12-player server is really 12 humans plus a huge amount of bots, which made the development especially difficult.

Love it or hate it (and most Tarkov players tend to do both), this game defined the extraction shooter genre, along with all its interesting ideas and persistent problems. And now, just 13 short years later, it finally has a rough release window—2025. Of course, the development pace was affected not only by typical game development challenges but also by software and hardware limits (and Buyanov’s sometimes excessively ambitious vision). Still—let that sink in—13 years of development! We’ll come back to this later when discussing the common pitfalls of the genre and why making these games is so difficult.

Tarkov’s original vision

And you know the funniest part? It was never Nikita’s original intention to make an extraction shooter. His early vision was closer to an MMO-like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or DayZ experience, and extraction was added as a temporary workaround while the team lacked the technical capacity to build the full open-world concept. Well, that temporary solution worked so good that we’re still living with the consequences—and newer Tarkov players don’t even realize it was never meant to be an extraction shooter in the first place.

Escape from Tarkov and Twitch Drops

Another major consequence of Tarkov’s rise was the popularization of the Twitch Drops system. Yes, it existed before, but EFT was the game that truly demonstrated its marketing potential. A Twitch Drop is a free in-game reward you earn by watching supported live streams on Twitch.

In late 2019, during a surge of attention, Tarkov leveraged Twitch Drops to explosive effect, bringing in massive streamer coverage, tons of viewer engagement, and a whole new wave of players. It was a textbook example of how well-integrated reward systems can fuel hype and growth, and it set a standard many other games would later try to follow.

The appeal of Tarkov

In my opinion, Tarkov became huge not just because of its addictive extraction loop, but also thanks to its military angle. At that time, ARMA was in slow decline, Call of Duty—busy with fake guns, and Battlefield—experimenting with historical settings. Fans of modern military realism quite literally had no major, high-quality (sigh) game to play—and Tarkov filled that niche successfully.

Hunt: Showdown 1896

Crytek’s extraction shooter about cowboys and horrors, Hunt: Showdown, delivers a haunting mix of Southern Gothic horror, decaying backwaters, and relentless tension. Its atmosphere is thick, oppressive, and unlike anything else in the genre.

Let’s talk about what makes Hunt unique right away. The game features a lot of original design choices that, at first glance, might seem like a player-friendly take on the genre, but in reality, it’s more complicated than that.

The loot system is fairly casual, but it helps reduce time spent on loadouts and makes the experience smoother, especially for console players. The social aspect is quite limited—there’s no reason to negotiate or cooperate with other players. Shoot on sight.

The hidden depth of PvE

At first, Hunt’s PvE may seem dull and straightforward—only a few types of enemies, monsters and even bosses don’t pose much of a threat and mostly serve to build atmosphere. If you removed PvP from the game, the remaining PvE experience would be completely unremarkable and boring. But that perception changes once you realize these monsters are an integral part of the PvP experience.

Any screech or growl gives away another player’s position—unless you triggered it yourself, of course (and I could praise Hunt’s sound design all day). If a Meathead is on the location, you can use poison damage to steer it toward enemies, since it’s attracted to poisoned targets. You can also shoot Immolators or Hives to aggro them toward enemy players—if these monsters are closer to them than to you. Even a regular Grunt can turn the tide of a firefight if someone gets distracted or stuck reloading. This is the 19th century: weapons from that time weren’t exactly known for their large magazines or user-friendliness. And bosses come with their exploitable behaviors, too.

Matchmaking in Hunt

Hunt’s matchmaking system is unique as well. Squads can consist of 1 to 3 players, and matchmaking pools are separated accordingly, but there’s a twist. Hunt uses skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), and players can choose their preferred matchmaking pool (as long as it’s equal to or higher than their current group size).

This means solo players can queue into solo-only matches, duos, or full trios. Duos can choose between duo-only or trio pools. Trios, naturally, can only queue against other trios. As a result, aside from the solo-only mode, every match is unpredictable. You never really know what mix of teams and players you’re up against.

This works thanks to a fairly large player base and a reasonably well-balanced SBMM system. It also helps that Hunt has a very fast time-to-kill—most weapons will down you with a single headshot. In addition, solo players receive buffs to some traits to help even the odds.

Trait system

Hunt features a trait system that lets players customize their hunters with passive abilities (and in rare cases, active ones). Traits are selected between matches based on the levels your characters earn, though you can occasionally find traits in the world itself. And the most powerful traits can only be discovered during a match. Additionally, solo players receive buffs to certain traits (like Necromancer, which allows a single self-revive when playing alone).

When you die, you don’t just lose your loot—you also lose your hunter, along with all the traits you worked hard to earn.

Origins of Hunt

Hunt: Showdown has been in development since 2013. Originally developed as a pure PvE title, the gameplay loop didn’t really work, so the devs shifted to an experimental PvPvE formula later. Early Access launched in 2018, and full release came mid-2019, yet it took two big overhauls of the engine, netcode, and economy before it truly took off in 2021. I played it from beta (it was my job at the time), and it took three years to fix server issues and tech headaches, even though Crytek is a fairly big studio (obviously, not everyone there worked on Hunt).

Different games, same emerging genre

All of the games mentioned above—The Division’s Dark Zone and Survival mode, Escape from Tarkov, and Hunt: Showdown 1896—became pioneers of the extraction shooter genre. Each of them did so unintentionally, and none of their creators could have predicted what would follow.

Post-Tarkov Extraction Shooters

Let’s briefly go over the other games in the genre—some tried to copy Tarkov, while others brought original ideas. We’ll wrap up with a list of cancelled, shut-down, and effectively dead games.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2 – DMZ

• Developer: Infinity Ward, Raven Software
• Publisher: Activision
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S
• Monetization: Free-to-play with optional cosmetic purchases

A streamlined extraction mode within Warzone, offering a casual PvPvE experience with simplified mechanics.​ It introduced a few small but interesting ideas, and was put on hold at the end of 2023. The mode is still playable, and there are rumors of a DMZ 2 in the works.

Arena Breakout

• Developer/Publisher: MoreFun Studios (Tencent)
• Platforms: Mobile (iOS, Android)
• Monetization: Free-to-play with in-app purchases; pay-to-win elements

A mobile clone of Escape from Tarkov. Alive and well.

Lost Light

• Developer/Publisher: NetEase Games
• Platforms: PC, iOS, Android
• Monetization: Free-to-play with cosmetic and progression-related purchases

A more casual mobile clone of Escape from Tarkov. Popular.

Delta Force – Operations

• Developer: TiMi Studios
• Publisher: Tencent
• Platforms: PC, consoles (coming summer 2025), mobile (cross-play supported)
• Monetization: Free-to-play multiplayer with a separate paid campaign

Game mode, a semi-original mix of ideas borrowed from Escape from Tarkov and DMZ, featuring light hero mechanics through operators with unique abilities. Enforced team compositions, no solo queuing, audience still growing.

Gray Zone Warfare

• Developer/Publisher: MADFINGER Games
• Platforms: PC
• Monetization: Premium game with early access

Closer to Arma than to Tarkov.

Arc Raiders

• Developer/Publisher: Embark Studios
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
• Monetization: Premium title

Coming later this year, sci-fi PvPvE extraction shooter set in a dystopian future.​ Initially was a PvE project.

Marathon

• Developer/Publisher: Bungie
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
• Monetization: Premium title with seasonal content

A reboot of Bungie’s classic IP, reimagined as a PvPvE extraction shooter featuring pre-set characters and cross-platform play.​ The release is planned for fall 2025.

Failed extraction shooters

• The Cycle: Frontier, by Yager Development (shut down post-launch)
• Marauders, by Small Impact Games, published by Team17 (effectively dead, 0 players)
• Badlanders, by NetEase Games (shut down post-launch)
• Hawked, by MY.GAMES (effectively dead, 0 players)
• Hyenas, by Creative Assembly, published by Sega (canceled mid-development)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline, by Ubisoft Bucharest, published by Ubisoft (canceled mid-development)
• Scavengers, by Midwinter Entertainment, published by Improbable (shut down post-launch)
• Seekers of Skyveil, by Elodie Games (shut down right after release)
• Level Zero: Extraction, by DogHowl, published by tinyBuild (game’s support dropped right after release, but you still can play it)
• Titanfall project “R7”, by Respawn Entertainment, published by Electronic Arts (most recent entry, canceled mid-development, with the wave of layoffs)

The Problems of the Extraction Shooter Genre: Hard to Make, Sell, and Play

Accidental peak of design

Extraction shooters are, without exaggeration, the peak of game design—simply because of how many complex systems they combine and how insanely hard it is to balance them all. You have to create gameplay that works and stays interesting for both PvE and PvP. On top of that is the extraction loop, which makes it even harder to shape a satisfying gameplay cycle, and then the in-game economy also has to be balanced. Building netcode is tougher, too, because integrating PvE and PvP puts extra stress on both server and client.

Tarkov, Hunt, and a few other games manage to sidestep some of these problems thanks to their extremely low TTK, but even then, building a game like this also demands a solid QA team. With so many interconnected systems, something is always bound to break. And we all know how much modern AAA publishers love to cut corners on QA. On top of that, you still need thousands of hours of live playtesting just to balance things and find the right formula for the game.

Tough sell

Players won’t invest time and money in a game if they’re unsure it’ll be properly supported. They’ve been burned too many times by unfinished, overpromised projects that got abandoned or shut down months after launch. On top of that, the “spend years to fix it after launch” approach isn’t really sustainable in today’s game as a service (GaaS) market—everything has to be profitable constantly, or it’s deemed unsustainable and gets shut down.

Another massive issue is cheating. Since every extraction shooter is, at its core, a competitive fight over loot, it naturally attracts the kind of cheaters that fit that setup. Almost every game in the genre ends up with a shadow real money trading (RMT) economy, which means most cheaters you’ll run into aren’t casuals, but professionals making a living off the game. Getting killed several times in a row by those guys—a miserable experience. And that leads us to the next problem.

Death isn’t fun

Casual players will die once or twice with a full backpack or a high-level character, lose everything, feel frustrated—and quickly bounce back to more forgiving games. Extraction shooters are a niche genre by design: they demand patience and tolerance for loss. They’re not built for the average player, and they tend to attract the more toxic and hyper-competitive crowd.

From a pure design perspective, it makes more sense to build a solid PvE or PvP experience first, and only then layer in an optional extraction or PvPvE mode—something that gives players a taste of high stakes without overwhelming them from the start.

Marathon Alpha Impressions

All of this comes down to one simple thing: I still don’t see a logical reason why Marathon had to be an extraction shooter. And after playing the alpha, that feeling only got stronger.

The monetization issue

Marathon doesn’t introduce any original mechanics to the genre—it’s mostly a remix of systems from Tarkov and DMZ, but the overall feel and structure seem most heavily influenced by the Delta Force Operations game mode. But there’s a serious problem—Delta Force is free, while Marathon isn’t. And on top of that, Marathon will have monetization layered over the base price.

Gameplay problems

One of the game’s core problems is the strange decision to force players into trios, with no proper solo mode. Playing with randoms in this kind of game is a pain—you have different objectives, need to go to opposite ends of the map, and there’s no guarantee your teammate even has a working mic. That lack of trust in your squad naturally makes you bring worse gear, just in case. On top of that, the dual-health system (HP + shields) and relatively long TTK leave solo players with basically no chance.

All of this makes the game far less appealing to anyone who doesn’t have a premade squad, instantly shrinking its potential audience.

Another strange decision is the lack of proximity chat. That instantly removes a part of what makes some extraction shooters interesting—spontaneous cooperation in tough PvE situations, unexpected alliances, and organic tension. Unfortunately, this isn’t the right genre if your goal is to eliminate toxicity.

Overall impression

The game has a solid foundation, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and some design choices are just plain odd. To put it bluntly, a player can get a similar experience elsewhere for free. So why pay now for vague post-launch promises of world-building that may never happen?

Summary: Extraction Shooter Struggle

The rise of extraction shooters was accidental. And ever since Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown gained traction, everyone’s been trying to shoot for the moon—for all the wrong reasons. In chasing a trend they barely grasp, publishers have poured massive resources into projects that either get cancelled mid-development or launch only to collapse within months. Years of wasted dev time, layoffs, and broken player trust.

Meanwhile, the two most iconic games in the genre weren’t even designed as extraction shooters from the start. Their success came from experimental systems that worked despite the odds—not because of market analysis or trend forecasting. And everyone conveniently ignored the fact that their path to success was long, painful, and filled with years of uncertainty, trial, and error. Yet here we are, watching studios burn themselves out trying to replicate something that was never meant to be mainstream in the first place.