Battlefield 2042’s Steam player count ‘falls below 1,000’ for the first time
It’s attracting far fewer players than 2018’s Battlefield V and recent rivals like Halo Infinite
Battlefield 2042‘s concurrent player count on Steam reportedly fell below 1,000 for the first time on Monday.
That’s according to SteamCharts information spotted by a ResetEra user.
It shows that earlier today, just 979 people were playing the game at one point. It’s worth noting that SteamDB data for April 11 shows today’s concurrent player count low as 1,021.
Battlefield 2042, which was released in November 2021, had an average concurrent player count of 1,963 over the past 30 days, according to SteamCharts.
That’s significantly lower than its predecessor, 2018’s Battlefield V, which had an average concurrent player count of 11,585 during the same period.
Fellow November 2021 release Halo Infinite had an average concurrent player count of 5,767 over the past 30 days.
In February, publisher Electronic Arts reportedly attributed some of Battlefield 2042’s struggles to the surprise early launch of Halo Infinite’s comparatively polished multiplayer experience.
Battlefield 2042 hasn’t gone down well with many fans, with over 200,000 people even signing a petition asking for EA to offer players unconditional refunds.
Acknowledging the game’s disappointing launch in February, EA CEO Andrew Wilson blamed factors such as “our teams working from home for nearly two years” and “unanticipated performance issues” that only became evident once the game was played at scale.
Related
Battlefield 2042 will add a refreshed scoreboard on Tuesday and voice chat in an April update
Battlefield 2042’s next update, which is scheduled to arrive in early April, is set to include voice chat, a feature that was surprisingly absent from the game at launch.
In a recent blog post, DICE also outlined how it’s changing its approach to Battlefield 2042 map design following the game’s disappointing launch.
Based on player feedback, it said it has identified five main issues with the design of the game’s existing maps, which it intends to improve over the coming months.
It also said new Battlefield 2042 maps being developed for future release will be smaller in scale than the game’s existing ones.
