Battleground 2042 haven’t had a good time. Bugs, crashes, and server issues have plagued DICE’s competitive military shooter since it was released last year, disappointing fans and quickly alienating players from the game.
In recent months, the number of active Battlefield 2042 PC players has plummeted, dropping from its all-time high of 100,000 to just a fraction of that number. Now its player base has shrunk so much that the number of active players has dropped below the game’s title number.
According SteamDB, February 14th saw the number of people playing Battlefield 2042 on Steam drop to 1,921. In comparison, over 21,000 players joined battlefield V during this time. That means Battlefield 2042 brought in less than 10% of the players that its predecessor did. Even Battlefield 1, released in 2016, is surpassing 2042, attracting over 7,200 players at the time.
Last month doesn’t show Battlefield 2042 much better either. As of press time, Steam graphics shows that the game’s average player count has only reached 4,925 in the last 30 days, down nearly 90% from the November average of 51,299.
Those numbers will likely be lower than the game’s total PC player count, however, given that Battlefield 2042 is also available to play on the Epic Games Store and Origin. Add to this the console users who are playing the game on Xbox Series X/S, PS4and PS5and the game’s overall player base will be larger.
Analysis: more to fall
That the number of active Battlefield 2042 players dropped below the game’s title number doesn’t count for much in a statistical sense, but it’s a strong indication of how poorly the game was received by players.
A heavyweight multiplayer series that has consistently grossed millions in sales for EA over the past decade, the publisher is certainly reeling from how quickly fans have bounced back from this latest release. His player count has been dropping for months and it doesn’t look like he’s going to recover anytime soon.
Along with the lingering bugs, the lack of 2042 updates has stopped many fans from sticking with it. DICE recently Battlefield 2042 DLC Season 1 Delayedpromising to spend the intervening months fixing existing flaws, implementing quality of life improvements, and adding additional features based on fan feedback.
But it will take a lot of work to fix the game and mend the broken goodwill between DICE and its fans. Unimpressed with the speed at which the game was updated, as well as EA’s inability to fully acknowledge its poor state, many dismissed the game entirely. Players are now looking for refunds, not wanting to wait for promised improvements.
The question now isn’t how far Battlefield 2042 will sink – it’s already sunk to depths far lower than anyone imagined – but whether it can recover. The slow release of new content, its persistent glitches, and the growing anger of its players will only serve to hasten its surprisingly quick and unglamorous demise.
