Highlights
- Battlefield 2042 has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity after addressing longstanding issues, potentially posing competition for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
- Recent updates to Battlefield 2042 have improved balance, movement, and gunplay, and the game set a new player-count record two years after its launch.
- With the unexpected rise of Battlefield 2042, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may face a tough battle for players' attention and could no longer enjoy an uncontested position in the FPS market.
The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is just around the corner, with the title's beta recently finishing alongside a lot of positive fan sentiment. Like most entries to the franchise, a huge amount of anticipation surrounds the upcoming game, with its choice to re-introduce multiplayer maps from 2009's iconic MW2 only boosting its hype even further.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is also set to come out at a time fairly uncontested by other major FPS releases, with many having thought the game would enjoy an easy time in the genre's spotlight. Despite this, Battlefield 2042 has recently received an unexpected resurgence in popularity by addressing some longstanding issues, potentially creating a bit of surprising competition for the upcoming release.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: A Potential Competitor In Battlefield 2042
It is no secret that Battlefield 2042 did not experience the launch that DICE was hoping for back in 2021. Previously billed as a CoD killer with an unprecedented focus on multiplayer in a near-futuristic setting, a huge amount of anticipation turned to disappointment when 2042 eventually released. Many fans hated the glaring differences between 2042 and past Battlefield games, with it choosing not to include any form of single-player and forgoing the franchise's traditional class system at launch.
Battlefield 2042 was originally supposed to contend against 2021's Call of Duty: Vanguard, but the shaky launch of 2042 saw its player count rapidly drop and Vanguard sat comfortably atop the FPS genre for the year. 2042 remained as an underwhelming blemish on the Battlefield name ever since, although it has recently been subjected to some thorough and dedicated polishing that may have turned the tide.
Recent updates to Battlefield 2042 have thrust the game into a position that DICE can be proud of, with the title facing a range of balance, movement, and gunplay improvements alongside new content like maps inspired by past Battlefield experiences. Battlefield 2042 recently held a free-to-play event across all platforms that saw its PC concurrent player count reach a new record of over 100,000, giving players a solid opportunity to get a feel of its many quality-of-life changes.
Setting a new player-count record two years after launch is a very impressive feat for 2042, and is something that might concern the potential reception of Modern Warfare 3 in November. While Call of Duty always pulls huge numbers of players, Modern Warfare 3 was meant to release in an uncontested FPS market, with no other AAA releases coming around the same time as the game. This has been completely undone by the unpredictable resurgence of Battlefield 2042, which has essentially created an entirely new AAA experience that MW3 now has to directly compete with.
With Halo and Battlefield both producing lukewarm titles in recent years, Call of Duty has enjoyed a complete lack of competition within the FPS industry, although that may now change. The gaming space is quite receptive to a good redemption story, as seen with the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, and the uptake in popularity for Battlefield 2042 could easily carry forward into Modern Warfare 3's life cycle. With hundreds of thousands of players experiencing a polished Battlefield 2042 just a month before MW3's launch, the upcoming game could find itself in a frustrating battle against the 2021 title.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.