Arc Raiders is still going strong almost a year after finding viral success, and it’s all thanks to Embark Studios’ one-two-punch strategy of launching a huge new update, Frozen Trails, to coincide with a free weekend.

Arc Raiders’ Frozen Trails update upgraded the extraction shooter to version 2.0 earlier this month – 8th October – and quickly led to a surge in Steam players interested in its tense PvEvP shootouts. A new report from Alinea Analytics’ Rhys Elliott now claims a similar resurgence took place across all platforms where the game’s available.

According to the report, Arc Raiders’ comeback peaked with a whopping 1.7m daily players jumping in on the 14th of October, its biggest player count in six months, mostly driven by the aforementioned update. What’s perhaps most interesting is that player numbers actually peaked just after the game’s free trial weekend ended on 12th October – though around 150,000 new looters reportedly joined the robo-infested wasteland during that weekend period.

Both events coincided with the game’s steepest discount yet, slashing its price tag by 50% to $19.99. In the three days after the free trial, Arc Raiders sold another 150,000 copies and brought home roughly $3m, not counting microtransactions, per the report.

Embark Studios’ seemingly went all out this month. Frozen Trails itself nudged almost every corner of the game, adding a new map, new weapons, new menacing mechs and much more.

A PvE test also tried to accommodate the game’s surprisingly friendly community between the 13th and 20th of October. Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal recently said the team isn’t against the idea of permanently splitting Arc Raiders’ PvEvP gameplay into PvE and PvP pockets. Who knows? Doing so could open the door to another resurgence if done well.

Earlier this month, we learned the production company behind this summer’s big screen horror hit, Backrooms, is working to adapt both Arc Raiders and The Finals into film and TV projects. Developer Embark is involved, too.