Every time you think the Arc Raiders community can’t surprise you anymore, someone finds a new way to test its social fabric. This time, two players decided to settle an unexpectedly heated question: who’s friendlier — PC players or console players?
Spoiler: one of them walked away vowing never to enable cross-play again.
A Simple Question Turns Into a Week-Long Social Study
Two brothers — one on PC, one on PS5 — committed to a full week of solo runs with cross-play disabled. Their goal was straightforward: track every player encounter and figure out, statistically, which platform harbors the friendlier raiders.
They also agreed on a set interaction rule. Whenever they met another player, they would:
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Lower their weapons
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Announce peaceful intentions
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Explain they were just looking for upgrade items
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Suggest teaming up if the moment felt right
What followed was… eye-opening.
PC Lobbies: Surprisingly Wholesome
The PC player ended up encountering 172 players, and the data paints a pretty positive picture:
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98 players wished him luck
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47 shot on sight
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17 extracted with him
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7 pretended to be friendly before betraying him
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3 faked a team-up and killed him later
In total, only 33% of interactions were negative.
That’s shockingly friendly for a competitive extraction shooter.
PS5 Lobbies: A Wild West of Betrayal
Meanwhile, on PS5, things were a bit… darker.
Across 237 encounters, the console player logged:
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102 players who shot on sight
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58 who shot him in the back
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42 who wished him luck
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28 fake-friendly betrayals
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7 successful cooperative extractions
That’s 79% negative interactions — over twice the negativity of PC servers.
No wonder the PS5 brother walked away declaring:
“I am never playing the game on cross-play ever again.”
Why Such a Big Difference?
While the experiment isn’t perfect — regions, playtimes, and other factors influence player behavior — one element seems to stand out: voice chat.
Players who speak, even briefly, tend to defuse tension instantly. A single “Hey, wait, let’s talk this out” can turn a firefight into a peaceful extraction. Without voice communication, suspicion skyrockets.
Server regions also play a role. Many players report:
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North American servers → more talkative, more helpful
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EU servers → quieter, but with higher chances of betrayal
Even small social cues seem to matter in Arc Raiders.
The Beauty of Arc Raiders’ Social Chaos
Part of what makes Arc Raiders special is this duality.
If you crave PvP chaos, squad lobbies deliver.
If you want wholesome interactions, solos can feel surprisingly peaceful.
But if you’re on PC?
This little experiment suggests turning cross-play off might spare you a few surprise bullets to the back.
And if you’re deep into the Arc Raiders world, don’t forget the official merch drop — check out arcraiders-merch.com for gear inspired by the game’s universe.