Battlefield 2042 is having a renaissance thanks to the start of a new season and a series of promotional events from DICE. As a result, the game has managed to attract more concurrent players on Steam than it had at launch.
On October 10, DICE launched Season 6 of Battlefield 2042, which introduced a new map, battle pass, and other content like weapons. The game also had a free weekend, causing its usual number of concurrent players to skyrocket from 10k-12k to over 100k.
In addition, Battlefield 2042 is 84% off, meaning that users can purchase it for just $9.59 until October 26. So even after the end of the free weekend, players continue to flock to the game, helping it reach its new record for peak concurrent users (CCU) on October 21 — 107,376 (via SteamDB).
Lifetime concurrent player count in Battlefield 2042
For comparison, it peaked at 105,397 CCU at launch on November 11, 2021, and the numbers have been steadily declining ever since. In Februrary 2022, the count dropped to less than 4,000 concurrent players, representing a nearly 97% decline from the all-time high.
Following Battlefield 2042’s botched release, it seemed like nothing could save the game. Even Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson called its sales disappointing, saying that the launch “did not meet expectations.”
However, recent results impressed not only players, but developers. Darko Šupe, technical lead on the Battlefield series at DICE, wrote on X (former Twitter) that while his six-year ride at the studio “has been far from what I dreamt of,” he always wanted to be a part of creating the next big Battlefield game.
“And while I work hard to realize my dreams, these numbers warm my heart. Thank you all, you will never realize how much these things actually mean to us,” Šupe said, encouraging players to “take this moment and dream of a beautiful future together.”
This is crazy. Almost 6 years with DICE for me, and the ride has been far from what I dreamt of. Battlefield 3 and 4 meant so much to me, I always wanted to be a part of creating the next big thing. Things did not look great after all this time – and I still look forward. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/ixoC8hXQ4R
— Darko Šupe (@darkosupe) October 21, 2023
Right now, between 90k and 100k users play Battlefield 2042 daily. This is just on Steam alone, not to mention other platforms like EA Origins, PlayStation, and Xbox (although we don’t have the exact numbers). Although the game still holds a “Mixed” rating on Steam, recent reviews are more warm — 58% vs. 42%.
Perhaps, these are the first fruits of the work of Respawn Entertainment head Vince Zampella, who currently oversees not only Apex Legends and Star Wars games, but is also in charge of the future development of the Battlefield series as a whole. So it is interesting to see whether DICE and EA will be able to retain players and revive its latest online FPS.