Calling the launch of Battlefield 2042 rough would be an understatement, and months later, its player count has plummeted to extremely low levels. For those needing evidence as to how little the game is being played on PC, some recent Steam data makes the struggles of Battlefield 2042 very clear.
With how Battlefield 2042 reviewed, and how much it was criticized by gamers upon its official release, it is not necessarily surprising that the game has struggled to retain the large player base it had early on. While Battlefield Portal was understandably praised, as the clever feature allowed players to mix and match content from some of the past entries to create unique modes, nearly everything else was torn apart by players. From the game’s visuals to its many bugs to its focus on specialists, the disappointment came from many different sources.
IGN recently compiled info from SteamDB, and it revealed some startling numbers. For starters, less than 2,000 Steam users are playing Battlefield 2042 at the time of writing, which is shockingly low considering that the Steam player count peaked at over 100,000. However, this becomes even more surprising when comparing the game’s player count to three of the previous entries in the series. Currently, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 1, and Battlefield 5 all have higher active player counts than the 2023 release - and some of the gaps are quite large.
Battlefield 4, which dropped all the way back in 2013 and had its own troublesome launch, is sitting at over 2,100 players. Battlefield 1, a 2016 release that took players back to The Great War, currently boasts an impressive 7,500 player count. Finally, there is Battlefield 5, a divisive game that has grown more popular over time and currently sits at over 21,000 active players on Steam. With this being over 10 times as many players as Battlefield 2042, the game is in serious trouble at the moment.
Unfortunately, it could be a while before things begin to improve. DICE has pushed Season 1 back to work on polishing the current experience of the game, and while it has promised things like smaller maps, it is unclear when the first Season will actually begin. With a Battlefield 2042 refund petition reaching 200,000 signatures, though, it is not too shocking that most of the discussion around the game has been overwhelmingly negative. With three older titles performing better than the latest entry, it is impossible not to be concerned about Battlefield’s future.
Some players have argued that Battlefield 2042 should go free-to-play, as it could be the only way to bring the game’s player count back up. Though it remains to be seen if this will actually happen, the Steam player count makes it abundantly clear that something major needs to be done to win back gamers.
Battlefield 2042 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: IGN
