The ducks are armed and the internet’s losing it, as Escape from Duckov flies high on Steam.
Who needs gritty realism when you can have quacking chaos instead? Escape from Duckov, a parody game of the hardcore extraction shooter Escape from Tarkov, has unexpectedly soared into the Steam stratosphere, racking up over half a million sales and a wave of players over the weekend.
Quack and extract: how Duckov took over Steam
Launched on 16 October, Team Soda’s PvE top-down looter-shooter lets players scavenge for resources, upgrade gear, and build their hideouts, all while outsmarting and surviving against hostile ducks. Think Tarkov, but with feathers, flippers, and a lot more laughter.
The result? A weekend peak of 182,509 concurrent players, making it the sixth most-played game on Steam, sitting just behind Delta Force, Battlefield 6, PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2. This also makes Escape from Duckov the ninth indie game to hit more than 100,000 peak concurrent players on Steam.
Team Soda couldn’t be happier. “At this moment, the entire dev team is quacking with joy and flapping our wings in excitement!” they said after confirming the milestone. The studio also took to social media to thank fans, writing:
They also gave away Steam Keys to some lucky players in celebration of the milestone.
And the duck love doesn’t stop there. The game has now reached the coveted Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, with the developers following up with another heartfelt message:
“To every duckling who played, rated, reviewed & shared: THANK YOU from the bottom of our webbed feet," they wrote. “This milestone belongs to YOU our amazing community. Let’s keep the adventure going,” they added.
With Escape from Tarkov officially arriving on Steam on 15 November, it remains to be seen whether the original can match its feathered parody’s numbers. For now, Escape from Duckov has proven that parody shooters can fly, and sometimes, soar even higher than the real thing.
Escape from Duckov is available on Steam for US$15.83, and is 12% off for its first two weeks. After that, the game will be sold at US$17.99.
