ARC Raiders free to play October 8–12 alongside Frozen Trail

Embark Studios has confirmed a free play weekend for ARC Raiders: from October 8 through 12, 2026, you can jump in without paying and try the full game. The window lines up with Frozen Trail, the biggest update since the extraction shooter launched.

Official times are in UTC: it starts October 8 at 09:00 UTC (11:00 CEST, 10:00 in the Canary Islands) and ends October 12 at 08:00 UTC (10:00 CEST, 09:00 in the Canaries). Embark breaks it down in Play for free: October 8–12.

What the trial includes

• The full game, not a trimmed demo: raids, extraction, and progress during those four days.
• Platforms: Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, per the studio. On PC the note names Steam; if you buy elsewhere, check whether the promo applies.
• Frozen Trail on the same October 8: a free update for owners. Highlights include Pendola Pass (north of the Rust Belt), Flash Freeze, new ARC units, Skill Tree changes, Outpost, and the rest of the patch—we cover that in Frozen Trail: map, Frigate, and Amplified Weapons (Embark also has the official First Look).

Embark notes that new players can drop into Pendola Pass right away if they squad up with someone who already unlocked the map—handy for trying the update together during the free weekend.

Quick context

ARC Raiders shipped in late 2025 and has stayed among the most talked-about extraction shooters on PC and consoles. Frozen Trail arrives almost a year later with a new map, threats, and progression systems; the free weekend is a shop window for anyone who has not bought the game yet.

Embark has also teased relaxed PvE matchmaking tests later; that is not the same as the free window, but it points the same way—bringing players back.

If you try the game and stick with it, remember that progress from those days depends on how Embark handles accounts; the official post does not spell out post-trial transfer, so treat it mainly as a try-before-you-buy window.