Saturday, October 21 2023 After a week of increased player numbers Battlefield 2042 has finally beaten its all-time player count from 2021, at over 107,000 concurrent players.
Battlefield 2042 is having its Cyberpunk 2077 moment, as a week after the shooter’s free weekend the game is still getting concurrent players in the six-figure range. Thanks to improvements and new content from DICE, good word of mouth, and an ongoing sale, Battlefield 2042 looks to be back.
Last week I reported on how a free weekend and massive series sale saw Battlefield 2042 re-emerge from the ashes of the game’s 2021 launch. The Battlefield 2042 player count quickly flew to just over 100,000 concurrents thanks to the free weekend on Steam, and I honestly thought we’d see a colossal drop-off in the days that followed. But the FPS game is holding strong, and I’m seriously impressed.
Battlefield 2042 hasn’t beaten the all-time player peak of 105,397 players from two years ago, but every day since the free weekend the shooter has comfortably sat around 100,000 players. The dips have been big, but we’re looking at the Cyberpunk 2077 moment for the EA game.
This is helped by the ongoing Battlefield 2042 Steam sale and positive word of mouth, but neither of these things takes away from the fact that since Sunday, October 15, Battlefield 2042 has seen its best player numbers in a long time.
Battlefield’s current position is even more impressive when you take into account how the free weekend came up against Modern Warfare 3’s open-beta weekend, which would be fierce competition for any multiplayer shooter.
The current Battlefield numbers on both Steam Charts and SteamDB will drop, that much is certain, but I’m floored by how long the DICE shooter has been holding out. It’s clear that players going in for the free weekend liked what they were playing, and the ongoing sale is helping them, and even more people, to stick around for a little while longer.
I called this Battlefield 2042’s Cyberpunk moment because both games had rough launches, and we already saw the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion give the CD Projekt Red game new life, with Battlefield getting a similar treatment. Season 6 Dark Creations is already underway for the shooter and the new map, weapons, gadgets, and battle pass items are giving the game life. This has combined with the free weekend and sale becoming a perfect storm, and players are loving it.
If Battlefield isn’t quite your speed but you want something similar we’ve got the best multiplayer games you can play right now, alongside a set of great free PC games as well.
