Escape From Tarkov’s 1.0 Release on Steam Met With Criticism Over Technical Issues, Slow Matchmaking

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After years in testing, Escape From Tarkov has officially launched, but the release hasn’t gone as planned. The game, which combines PvP and PvE elements with a unique extraction mechanic, is currently receiving mixed reviews on Steam. As of today, only 45% of English-language user reviews are positive.

Players have reported several problems with Escape From Tarkov, such as server instability due to high player counts and the presence of cheaters. While some reviewers appreciate the game’s distinctive gameplay, they also note that these issues persist even after the full release.

One Steam reviewer criticized the game, saying that despite five years of improvements intended to prepare it for a full release, it still feels like an unfinished product being tested on players. The reviewer pointed to significant technical problems, including hackers, server instability, and persistent, patch-dependent bugs, describing the game as fundamentally unstable and poorly built.

Many players have complained that finding matches takes too long. Some reported waiting between 20 and 40 minutes, which they found particularly frustrating, even considering the game had just launched.

They reported a serious problem with the game’s code. While they were willing to accept issues like a rocky start, server problems, performance hiccups, and typical bugs, they found the 20-to-40-minute wait times for matchmaking – whether playing as Scav or PMC – unacceptable.

While Escape From Tarkov doesn’t currently have as many players on Steam as ARC Raiders, it’s important to remember that Steam isn’t the only place to play. The game has been available directly from the developer since its early alpha stages, and has built a huge community outside of Steam. SteamDB shows a peak of about 47,800 players, with 38,511 playing at the time this was reported.

Battlestate Games is working to resolve initial problems with the game, but director Nikita Buyanov has also mentioned the possibility of releasing Escape From Tarkov on consoles in the future.

We’re looking into bringing the game to consoles,” said Buyanov. “If we do, we plan to fully support controllers. It’ll be a big design challenge to make the controls comfortable while still capturing all of Tarkov’s complex gameplay.”

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2025-11-17 17:12