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| A banner lauding Tigz's achievement on X |
For nearly a decade, the merciless streets of Tarkov have been a prison of perpetual conflict. Escape from Tarkov, the notoriously hardcore extraction shooter from Battlestate Games, has built its reputation on a simple, brutal premise: get in, grab loot, and get out alive. Yet, despite years of early access, the “escape” part of the title felt like a cruel joke—an ever-elusive goal in a never-ending cycle of raid and death.
That all changed last month. With the game’s full 1.0 launch on Steam, Battlestate introduced a shocking new possibility: finality. For the first time, players could work towards one of four definitive endings, breaking the core gameplay loop forever. And now, in a moment that has stunned the community, a Twitch streamer has done the unthinkable. He is the first person in the world to truly escape from Tarkov.
The Veteran Who Crossed the Finish Line
The man who made history is known as Tigz, a Tarkov veteran with a dedicated following of nearly 100,000 on YouTube and 180,000 on Twitch. When the new "Terminal" map dropped on December 1st, offering a more narrative-driven, PvE-focused path to freedom, Tigz embarked on a grueling quest. For over two and a half weeks and roughly 150 hours of live-streamed grinding, he meticulously learned the map's dangers, carefully navigating docks and picking off AI enemies from behind shipping containers.
The climax of his marathon effort was as tense as any Tarkov firefight. After reaching the end of the docks, he located a waiting ship. As the extraction timer ticked down to zero, he braced for a disconnect or a sudden, cruel death. Instead, he was met with something no Tarkov player had ever legitimately seen: a ending cutscene.
You can watch the historic moment of extraction and the shocking cutscene that followed right here.
In a state of stunned disbelief, Tigz watched as his character finally left the war-torn city behind. "It was too good to be true," he remarked during the stream, as the game's narrative unfolded.
A Fiery Finale and a Director's Verdict
The ending itself was apocalyptic. As Tigz's ship pulled away, fighter jets screamed overhead before a cataclysmic nuclear detonation engulfed Tarkov in a fireball, presumably wiping it—and every remaining player and scavenger—from the map. On-screen text hammered home the cost of this selfish freedom: “You ran, hoping to escape. It seemed like all would end outside Tarkov, but hell erupted behind you.”
Battlestate Games swiftly officially recognized the achievement. From the studio's official X account, they proclaimed, “Congratulations to Tigz on being the first to Escape From Tarkov. You survived. But at what cost?”
Even game director Nikita Buyanov tuned into the livestream, simply stating, “He did it!” But in a later post, Buyanov clarified that Tigz had unlocked only the second-worst of the four possible endings. He tantalizingly added, “The first person who will complete the game with the Best Ending will definitely have something special from me!”
The Hunt for a "Good" Ending Begins
Tigz’s monumental achievement has broken the psychological barrier, proving that escape is possible. But it has also ignited a new, feverish race within the Tarkov community. If that was the second-worst ending, what horrors—or perhaps faint hopes—do the others contain? And what is the “special” reward Buyanov has promised for the player who first finds the elusive “Best Ending”?
The first escape has changed Tarkov forever. It’s no longer just about survival within the cycle, but about finding a way to break it. One player has finally reached an ending, but for the rest of Tarkov’s inhabitants, the desperate search for a better way out—and the promise of a unique prize—has only just begun. The question now isn't just if you can survive the raid, but what kind of story your survival will finally tell.