In the challenging, hardcore world of Escape From Tarkov, nothing is more exciting than a wipe. It’s a global reset of the game, pushing every single player in the world back down to level pegging, stripping them of their equipment, and forcing them to start climbing the ladder from the first rung. However, despite weeks of ‘pre-wipe events’ having taken place already, there’s no indication of when the next Escape From Tarkov wipe will be.
It’s the ebb and flow of the game – people will return to play when the game wipes, and then over a series of months, the player count trickles down. It’ll dwindle, typically leaving the most hardcore and dedicated players to fight it out on the platform, before suddenly, another wipe hits. Then, all those players that temporarily withdrew from the game make a grand return specifically to enjoy the Escape From Tarkov wipe.
It’s worth stressing that Tarkov isn’t the only game to experience ‘wipes’, but it’s arguably the game that makes them seem the most exciting. In Escape From Tarkov, many players will find themselves dramatically overpowered in their endgame within a series of weeks following a wipe. They’ll have the best weapons, the best ammunition types, and the strongest armour. They’ll be more or less unstoppable, and as everyone else catches up, Escape From Tarkov becomes increasingly difficult.
With an Escape From Tarkov wipe taking place, even the most skilled and well-equipped players are instantly forced to run low-tier armour and wield weaker weapons. Sure, they’ll be levelled up again in no time at all, but it’s a great measure that ensures that – even for a brief period of time – every player has the same chances as the other to crack on with the game.
They’re also an opportunity for the developer, Battlestate Games, to incorporate fresh content into the game in the form of a massive update. Typically, a wipe in Tarkov signals the arrival of huge changes or additions, and in the past, these amendments have been so sizeable that they’ve changed the course of the game entirely.
It’s almost impossible to know when the next Escape From Tarkov wipe will be. Traditionally, there’s around a six-month gap between wipes occurring, and at the moment, we’re sitting at 194 days since the last wipe – that’s 6.3 months. It’s important to bear in mind that it’s a rule of thumb and not a mandatory timeline, though. For instance, the longest gap between wipes was in 2020, and it lasted 214 days – but that was impacted by COVID-19.
In 2021, the shortest gap between Escape From Tarkov wipes occurred, with the space in between lasting just 165 days. There’s an average of 194 days between wipes, and that’s where we’re at as this article is written, so take that to mean whatever you so desire.
Typically, Battlestate Games announces a wipe on its Twitter page, the Tarkov website, and on the game’s launcher. It will simply announce that an update is being rolled out and it will say something like, ‘There will be a wipe with this update,’ and that’s it – everyone comes flooding back to the game. In an instant, viewership on Twitch and YouTube flies up, friend groups reunite, and the Escape From Tarkov platform is alive and thrumming with players once again.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen several ‘pre-wipe’ events kick-off, which traditionally marks the arrival of a wipe. We’ve had mass airdrops, bosses congregating on the same map, and strange stim-based events, but still, the wipe eludes us.