Extraction shooter
You go into a map full of enemies and other players with your gear, grab loot and have to reach an extraction point before time runs out. Get out and you keep what you carry; die and you lose it all, so every match is about deciding how much to risk.
Also known as: extraction game, PvPvE shooter
This is a basic entry: it has the definition and the classification. Full entries add history, games and a demo.
History
- 2016OriginEscape from Tarkov
Battlestate Games' Escape from Tarkov opened its closed alpha in August 2016 and its beta in July 2017. The genre is defined by its style of play.
Escape from Tarkov (Wikipedia) - 2018Hunt: Showdown
Crytek's Hunt: Showdown enters early access: bounty hunters kill monsters and must then survive the other players long enough to reach an exit.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 (Wikipedia) - 2020Escape from Tarkov
Twitch streams send Escape from Tarkov's popularity soaring, and it reaches 200,000 concurrent players in May.
Escape from Tarkov (Wikipedia)
Reference games
2016
Escape from Tarkov
You join 20-to-50-minute raids where you fight other players and bots for loot. You only keep what you picked up if you reach an extraction zone in time. It opened its closed alpha in 2016 and reached version 1.0 in 2025.
2018
Hunt: Showdown
You are a bounty hunter who kills monsters to claim their bounty and must then survive the other hunters long enough to reach an extraction point. It entered early access in 2018 and fully launched in 2019; it is now called Hunt: Showdown 1896.