Battlefield 6 Has Reached a Concerning Milestone

Battlefield 6's concurrent player base has continued to drop following the holiday break, dipping below 100,000 players and keeping a concerning trend alive for the once popular online shooter. Seemingly building off of the slow revival of Battlefield 2042, EA revealed Battlefield 6 to an excited fanbase as the series seemingly returned to its gritty and realistic roots. However, that positivity has seemingly been on the downswing in recent weeks.

Battlefield 6 had a tremendously successful launch for EA, helped by strong word of mouth after a well-received beta test a few months prior, and a seeming return to form with major destruction, a single-player campaign, and a grittier, more realistic look than some of its contemporary shooter games. Those factors helped Battlefield 6 reach massive heights on Steam, surpassing 700,000 concurrent players on day one and elevating the game into becoming the best-selling shooter game for 2025. However, things have slowly been turning in the wrong direction as of late, with numerous controversies and player frustrations seemingly giving way to a player base that appears to be leaving in droves.

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By Richard Warren

Battlefield 6 Drops Below 100k Players

According to SteamDB, Battlefield 6 has now seen its 24-hour player peak dip below 100,000 players, which is way down from its all-time high of 747,440 at launch. The live-service title has continued to stumble following its impressive launch and the numbers currently indicate that things are quickly becoming dire. It's worth noting that this doesn't mean Battlefield 6 is dying or, in any way, dead, as the numbers are still solid, but it is certainly a far cry from what the game was achieving a few months ago.

Naturally, this data is strictly for the Steam version of Battlefield 6, so it's entirely possible that the player base on Xbox and PlayStation consoles is higher or, at the very least, remains stable. However, there has seemingly been no shortage of player frustrations and other issues that have cropped up as of late, so it's reasonable to assume that overall player numbers on consoles have also dipped somewhat. Fans have recently accused Battlefield 6 of ripping off Call of Duty with one of its skins, highlighted potential AI-generated content, and have largely been left frustrated by the short time frame to complete the BF Pro bonus path.

Following the honeymoon period of Battlefield 6's launch window, Season 1 appears to be where things really started to turn, starting with the launch of Battlefield's RedSec battle royale mode, which didn't really hit players in the way that EA was likely hoping. Players continued to request bigger maps, bugs continued to crop up following various updates, and the current Winter Offensive update has caused numerous new gameplay issues for players. Shockingly, it's also starting to look like Call of Duty is slowly making a comeback against Battlefield 6, the former best-selling shooter game of 2025.

Part of that player dip could possibly be attributed to Embark Studios, as ARC Raiders continues to showcase impressive player numbers. While extraction shooters have typically been a tough genre to appeal to a broader audience, ARC Raiders has seemingly broken through to not only achieve impressive player numbers, but retain 91% of them (on Steam at least) in the months that followed after launch. That's in stark contrast to Battlefield 6, which has lost roughly 85% of its Steam population since October. With Embark looking to continue building on its success, it'll be interesting to see how EA attempts to win players back in 2026.

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FPS

War & Military

Action

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OpenCritic Reviews: Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 90%

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Released: October 10, 2025
ESRB: Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s): Battlefield Studios
Publisher(s): EA

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Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play: All platforms
Cross Save: Via EA Account
Franchise: Battlefield
Number of Players: Single-player
Steam Deck Compatibility: Unsupported
PC Release Date: October 10, 2025
Xbox Series X|S Release Date: October 10, 2025
PS5 Release Date: October 10, 2025
Genre(s): FPS, War & Military, Action
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
OpenCritic Rating: Strong
How Long To Beat: 6 hours
X|S Optimized: Yes
File Size Xbox Series: 87.44 GB

Cliff

Cliff

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Like Derek, I too have grown bored with it. I believe the true issue is that the game is inundated with issues (perceived or real). Specifically, there is a gameplay difference between those on Mouse and Keyboard vs those using a controller. Controllers have Aim Assist (way overpowered IMO), reduced Bloom, and reduced recoil. Some have even stated that PC players have a generated network issue applied to their connection.

With all of that said, I personally have seen things during the game that just don't add up. Whether this is because of PC cheaters or console Chronus users, I can't really say. What I can say though is that the game is very frustrating and just doesn't "feel" fair. At times, you may go on a crazy KDR run and then sometime during that game you will go on this run where you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat in the middle of the ocean.

To compound issues, in EA's forums it's almost as if there is a deaf ear to issues that are being discussed by the community. Virtually no comments by EA staff appear to be posted for a majority of the complaints.

The game "could" be fun. If you're wondering why the quote marks around the word "could", it's because it isn't fun enough to continue the torture of playing the game for longer than 30 minutes to an hour. Previous version of the series (I've been playing since 1942) had a different "feel" to them. They were actually fun to play. The downfall appears to have started sometime after BF1.

It's honestly sad. This used to be a fun franchise. Now, it appears that Devs only want to cater to the "sweaty bois" and have completely forgotten about the players that helped lift them up through their playing of the game, their constant positive reviews, and word-of-mouth marketing towards friends and family, encouraging them to buy the BF series. Now, a large portion of those players have turned their backs on EA/Dice and refuse to recommend the latest version. Kudos EA/Dice.

2026-01-07 20:49:47