Escape From Duckov quacks past 300,000 concurrent players only 10 days after release

Escape From Duckov might look like a goofy riff on Escape From Tarkov, and that's because it is one. But it's also a righteous way to breathe in the extraction shooter hype without all the hardcore PvP, and players are flocking to give it a shot. Today on Oct. 26, that number hit a screaming high of over 300,000 simultaneous players, according to SteamDB.

When PC Gamer news writer Lincoln Carpenter gave the game a spin, he conceded he thought the game was an elaborate bit at first. It won him over, though, as he said his impressions: "Under its deceptive meme game veneer, Escape From Duckov is an excellent topdown shooter that smartly repackages the extraction shooter in a satisfying singleplayer format."

Singleplayer extraction shooter might sound like a bit of an oxymoron—the genre is all about evading other players to escape with your life and loot—but Duckov is stuffed with all sorts of quests and a base to kit out with upgrades, essentially squeezing the genre into the framework of a roguelite RPG. There's also fishing, love it or hate it.

If it's true that Team Soda's angle was to inject a little virality into their game with the satirical title and cutesy animals, then bully for Team Soda; it worked. Regardless of the context, it seems like they've landed on a silly, enjoyable game people are hungry for more of. In this day and age, I feel compelled to cheer on any game making the dream work. Duckov is certainly a mite more successful than the studio's last game, which only ever hit a concurrent player count peak of 1,631.

If you're keen to duck and cover with the rest of 'em, Escape From Duckov is at a discounted price of $15.83 on Steam until Oct. 29.