Escape from Tarkov recently took everything away from its players. However, they apparently did not mind this at all. On the contrary: Now the online shooter even has more players than it has ever recorded before, say the developers.
What is the status? The Patch 0.12 from May 28 was a “Wipe”, meaning it deleted everything. The players no longer had any equipment afterward. Even free items from events have disappeared. Only presets and items in the manual remained.
What in other games would likely have led to a massive wave of frustration, helps Escape from Tarkov to reach its best status ever. According to Battlestate Games’ COO, Nikita Buyanov, EFT now has over 200,000 players online at the same time (via reddit). He calls this number a record.
Since Escape from Tarkov is not playable on Steam, it is difficult to verify these numbers and there is only the developers’ statement. However, if it is true, it is remarkable to gather such a player base without a distribution platform like Steam or Epic.
EFT – Now better for newcomers?
Why so many people are playing now: Due to the wipe EFT has become ideal for new players for a short time. The game is considered a hardcore shooter with a high entry barrier for new players, especially when veterans block their entry by constantly killing them.
Now that everyone more or less has to start from scratch, even newcomers had the chance to start relatively unharmed and possibly get captivated by the atmosphere. If you want to try it yourself, you can find 13 tips for starting in Escape from Tarkov here.
Even some veterans were already looking forward to the restart in advance. For them, the bug fixes and changes that came with Patch 0.12 were also important. For example, there are now:
- Improvements to quests available at earlier levels
- Changes to the offerings of traders to make it easier at the start
- higher chance to find rare items, such as Flash Drives
What has EFT improved further? The developers are currently working on new servers for the OCE region (Oceanic Zone, e.g., Australia). Players from there have often complained about how frustrating it is to play EFT due to their connection. They were even partly affected by anti-cheater measures for this reason.
One of the biggest streamers, Pestily, is from Australia. Pestily became famous through Escape from Tarkov and has since been helping players with guides and is one of the most well-known figures in the game. The region has thus also become quite important for EFT.
In addition, Battlestate Games is now working hard against cheaters, who apparently pose a problem for fair players. Over 3000 cheaters have already been banned and the fight continues, as the developers state. Further changes and innovations have also been announced, but so far there is no concrete information about them.
