At first glance, Escape from Duckov seems to be a parody of the popular extraction shooter Escape from Tarkov, but with ducks. However, it is so much more than that, and its success proves Team Soda and Bilibili Game right.
Escape from Duckov successfully conveys the excitement and thrill of the extraction shooter genre in single-player mode - and as a top-down shooter.
Players take on the role of a duck who wakes up in the dangerous world of Duckov. They must fight off enemy birds and other cartoonish opponents, gather resources, upgrade equipment, and try to escape with loot alive. The risk of losing equipment if the player dies adds to the excitement of each mission.
During missions on the five large maps, players can find meds, gear and rare collectibles that can be sold later to enhance their base and make them stronger. Blueprints can also be found on the maps and can be used to build stronger weapons and equipment. While the game is easy to pick up, it is hard to master, and strategic resource management is key. Players can fight enemies head-on with raw firepower or survive stealthily, but should avoid leaving empty-handed.
Escape from Duckov; Team Soda and Bilibili Game
Unlike hardcore tactical shooters, this game features cartoonish enemies, fog-of-war mechanics and randomly dropped loot. Combined with base-building, a selection of more than 50 weapons, weapon customisation and progression systems like talent trees (ranged, melee, and character attributes), it offers surprising depth and high replayability that will keep players coming back for more. The developers claim that there are over 50 hours of content per playthrough. The game also has mod support. It is a humorous yet surprisingly complex single-player adaptation of the Tarkov formula. However, players may struggle with the large number of repetitive fetch quests and inventory space issues, which can hinder the flow of the game.
Producer Jeff Chen: "Team Soda is incredibly humbled to have reached such heights, and we owe this success to an incredible community of players and our friends at Bilibili Game. Whether you've been with us through our early days promoting the demo on Steam or are just joining to see what all the quacking is about, thank you."
Escape from Duckov was released for PC on 16 October 2025, priced at €17.99. Developed by Chinese Team Soda and Bilibili Games, the game became a phenomenon within a few days. It is a prime example of how a game can spread and grow through virality and word of mouth. At its release, it had just under 35,000 concurrent players on Steam, which is a good figure. However, what happened in the following days was exceptional: a week later, the concurrent users had skyrocketed to 253,644. By 27 October, it had reached its highest figure to date: 301,322, making it one of the most successful games on Steam this year. It is also still available on the Epic Games Store and the Mac App Store.
The game reached 200,000 sales within 24 hours of its release on 16 October and 500,000 by the end of 19 October. It reached the one million mark on 22 October. Two million copies had been sold by 29 October.
Escape from Duckov; Team Soda and Bilibili Game
However, the game's strongest market is likely to be its home market of China. An analysis of the language used in Steam user reviews reveals that approximately 72 per cent are in Simplified Chinese, while almost 4 per cent are in Traditional Chinese. Just 11.4 per cent of reviews are in English, followed by 5.4 per cent in Korean, 3 per cent in Russian, 2 per cent in Japanese, and 1 per cent in German.
Team Soda was a subsidiary of Bilibili Games and it was published by Bilibili Games. It has received a lot of promotion in China. On Resetera it's described as "a small-scale game supported by Chinese YouTube". Reminder: Bilibili is a Chinese video-sharing platform similar to YouTube.
Escape from Duckov transforms the extraction shooter genre into an engaging, rich and motivating single-player experience from a top-down perspective – and it does so with ducks!
