Tyler “Ninja” Blevins used a recent livestream to tell Embark Studios he does not want Arc Raiders turned into a competitive esport, saying the game’s current desync and loop of money-driven tournaments would ruin the casual fun for most players. In the clip circulating online the streamer argues the moment organizers start throwing prize money at Arc Raiders, players will begin to treat every match like a high-stakes race to min‑max performance. He bluntly told viewers he hoped there would never be tournaments for the title and that developers should “keep it as casual as possible.”
Ninja also called out technical issues as a reason tournaments would be a bad fit, saying there is “too much desync for this game to like legitimately be competitive” and warning that prize-driven scenes rapidly accelerate how quickly people learn and exploit an experience.
The warning lands while Arc Raiders’ player base is still sorting its expectations: some groups are already debating whether the project needs more content or simply a slower grind, and that divide has bubbled up in the community. Embark’s development approach has been iterative and full of experimentation, which the studio says helped shape the final product, and that background is part of why conversations about the game’s direction feel heated right now.
Players are also building third-party tools and resources to track items and crafting trees outside the game client, which can matter if competitive play rewards perfect optimization. Reddit is where the clip first spread and where much of the immediate reaction is concentrated.
Ninja has urged Arc Raiders not to follow Fortnite's lead by making the game too competitive
byu/raptors201966 inArcRaiders
If you care about whether Arc Raiders becomes a tournament game should follow the conversation and tell other players what they think. Leave a comment below and follow CPG on X, Bluesky, and YouTube.
ARC Raiders
Developed by Embark Studios
ARC Raiders is a multiplayer, extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC.
- Genre: Shooter
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Modes: Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release: 2025-10-30
- Publisher: Embark Studios
-
Age Rating:
ESRB T / PEGI 16 / GRAC 15+ / USK 18 / CLASS_IND 14 / ACB M
- IGDB Rating: 89.7/100
