“How can DICE ever recover from Battlefield2042” - Fans left shocked as concurrent player count falls below 1000 within five months

Within five months of launch, Battlefield 2042 seems to be on its last leg, with concurrent player count on Steam dropping below 1000. The live service title has lost 99% of its player base on Steam before the first season even arrived.

Battlefield is one of the biggest and most iconic first-person military franchises. Along with Call of Duty, it helped the genre evolve into what it is today.

Call of Duty is known for tight combat in narrow spaces. Meanwhile, Battlefield takes the player to a massive warzone with hundreds of soldiers fighting on a complex map that changes as the game progresses with levelution.

After a mediocre response to Battlefield V, players got excited when Dice announced that they’d be heading to a fan-favorite setting, similar to that of Battlefield 3 and 4, often considered the pinnacle of the franchise’s fame.

However, the game launched in an unfinished barebones state. It lacked several franchise staples like a scoreboard, voice chat, and a proper single-player mode. It also completely overhauled its core class-based mechanics in favor of more operator-based hero-shooter mechanics, mimicking current FPS staple titles.

The title’s concurrent player base has now fallen below 1000 on Steam, as fans have lost patience waiting for substantial content from Dice.

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“It breaks my heart to say it, but Battlefield 2042 is dead” - With less than 1000 concurrent players, fans mourn the death of a franchise

Battlefield 2042 was set to be the biggest game so far. Dice did not forego the single-player mode but also had the help of other EA studios like Criterion and Ripple Effect.

The title promises a lot of franchise firsts, including massive maps, drastic devastating weather effects, and 128-player mode, which is a significant increase over the 64-player standard.

However, as mentioned earlier, the game was launched in an unfinished state. Not only was it filled to the brim with bugs and glitches, but it also lacked the necessary features like a scoreboard, voice chat, and more at launch.

While the maps were certainly big, they consisted of massive flat open areas instead of the expected diverse covers and levels for a unique gunplay experience.

However, arguably the biggest shortcoming of BF42 was its specialist system. In a feeble attempt to follow the path of Call of Duty and Valorant, Dice lost the identity of the franchise.

The iconic class system encourages squads to pick different classes and work together with their squadmates. However, the specialist system replaced the tried-and-true class system and failed to be anything impressive.

As for the post-launch content, including the seasons, Dice have gone radio silent on the matter. Five months after its launch, the ‘live-service’ game has failed to deliver any proper content.

Fans who purchased the higher edition of the title were promised a year or four-season worth of free content. These promises prompted many fans to go for the higher edition as they planned to stick with the title for quite a while prior to the launch. However, Dice is yet to mention anything about the future content.

BFV and BF1 concurrent player count on Steam (Image via SteamDB)

BF4 and BF42 concurrent player count on Steam (Image via SteamDB)

Currently, the concurrent player count on Steam, as reported by SteamDB, is fluctuating around 1000, with persistent drops to three digits.

When compared to BFV (2018) and BF1 (2016), the last two titles of the franchise, things do not bode well for BF42. The concurrent player base also sometimes dips below that of BF4 (2013), which is almost a decade-old title on Steam.

While a handful of fans are still eagerly awaiting new content, it seems like Dice is already planning the next title for the franchise, effectively abounding Battlefield 2042.