In Escape from Tarkov, the first player has now succeeded in escaping from the namesake area and completing the game after 9 years, but it is not an easy task.
Why did it take 9 years? Although Escape from Tarkov already carries the end goal in its name, it has only been possible to truly escape from Tarkov since the release about two weeks ago. The shooter has been playable in various alpha and beta versions for 9 years, but the developers have only now released the final goal and the opportunity to actually escape from EFT.
To achieve this goal, many of the new and lengthy story missions must be completed. They take considerable time and are a challenge even for veterans. Nevertheless, the first player managed to achieve this in just under 2 weeks, although not everything has been accomplished yet.
You can watch the trailer for Escape from Tarkov here:
Goodbye Tarkov, or not?
Who reached the end? The first player to reach the end of Escape from Tarkov is Twitch streamer Tigz. Since the release, he has been working live on escaping Tarkov for several hours every day, completing both new and old missions.
On December 1, 2025, it finally happened, and in a final story mission, he managed to escape from Tarkov. For this, the developers have developed an entire story mission that takes place in single-player mode and serves as a crowning conclusion. There is also a cinematic sequence and some information that contributes to the storyline of the hardcore shooter, once you really escape from Tarkov.
You can see how Tigz reached the end in his video on YouTube:
The success was also acknowledged by the developers on X.com. They publicly congratulated the player on the achievement of being the first to escape Tarkov. However, despite the great success, which was achieved in over 100 hours of gameplay, it was not yet the end.
What remains to be done? When the Twitch streamer reached the end of the game, he was greeted with the message “Escaped from Tarkov and Survived.” In addition to some fluff text, there is a note underneath that states he has completed one of four possible endings.
This means the streamer has more endings ahead of him, which he can only reach if he resets his account through the prestige system. This causes him to lose many of his earned items and equipment, but he has the opportunity to see multiple endings, he says in his Twitch stream at 09:54:30. How the other endings differ, however, is still uncertain.
There are also frequent references to Team 715 in the game. According to a community research on Reddit, the team publicly supports Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and reportedly even entered the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia. There they are also said to have posed with weapons from the Russian military and actively participated in combat operations (via Imgur).
Escape from Tarkov has also posed a significant challenge to its veterans with new story missions and four available endings. The fact that it took more than two weeks and over 100 hours of gameplay to reach the end shows that the developers aim for more “hardcore” gameplay. How “hardcore” it can get is also shown by another event in the game: Escape from Tarkov is set to get even tougher: Developers announce mysterious “Hardcore Wipe”
