Almost two years after its release, Battlefield has managed to greatly turn around its player count and has returned to launch-high levels. When the game originally released, many aspects of the gameplay were changed and not for the better, popular features were absent, and many bugs were found in the game. All of these factors lead the game to see a significant drop in its player count. Since then, developers have worked hard to improve the FPS, and recently, the hard work has paid off as the player count climbed drastically on Steam. According to Steam DB, Battlefield 2042 achieved a concurrent player count of 102, 009 yesterday. This count is only a bit short of the all-time high player count of 105,397 when it launched in November 2021.
Together with various updates and changes introduced previously, including the return of the beloved class system and its free status on Steam which was added a few days ago, the game has soared in popularity. The recent surge in popularity is nothing to scoff at as the game was considered done by many people. It’s even more impressive when considering the rise in player count occurred when Modern Warfare 3’s open beta was taking place.
The free-to-play period comes to a close later today, but the results have taken effect. Even though the player count is expected to drop after the free period ends, the game is still reduced by 85% on Steam which should encourage new players to try the game. Season 6 is also offering a great deal of new content for players. This, in turn with the reduced price, should secure many new players.
Despite Battlefield 2042’s plethora of issues, the game is still important to EA. EA CEO Andrew Wilson was quoted in saying “Battlefield will be a meaningful part of EA’s future.” Additionally, the series is “firmly implanted” in the company’s strategy of “building games and experiences that attract and entertain massive online communities across platforms.”