Battlefield 2042 has been dealt blow after blow since it was released last year. Player numbers have been dropping so fast that EA has been forced to release a roadmap of fixes for the game. EA announced that it would be spending the next few months trying to fix the issues with the game that players have. Coincidentally, in the last 24 hours, the player count for Battlefield 2042 dropped below the previous two games in the series, Battlefield V and Battlefield 1.
It’s the latest in a long line of embarrassments for EA and the game. On an almost weekly basis, Battlefield 2042 has been surprising gamers with just how bad things can get. Last week, the game dropped out of the top 50 most played games on Xbox. Battlefield 2042 had a free weekend, earlier than any other game in the franchise, and it seemed to do nothing to stem the losses. Sales of the game were also lackluster compared to previous games in the franchise. In the UK, launch sales were down 59% compared to Battlefield V.
The latest bad news comes from the PC side. On PC, Battlefield 2042’s player count has dropped so low that it is now sitting below Battlefield V and Battlefield 1. A snapshot taken yesterday shows Battlefield 2042 with 4203 players, Battlefield V with 15,533 players, and Battlefield 1 with 7538 players. That’s right, two-year-old Battlefield V had triple the player count of Battlefield 2042 which has been out for just a few months. Things get worse when looking at the 24-hour peaks for each game. At the time of writing, Battlefield 2042 has a 24-hour peak of 4,842 players while Battlefield V and Battlefield 1 have peaks of 26,074 and 11,367 respectively. It’s no wonder EA felt the need to release its blogpost today.
While EA is scrambling to try and revive Battlefield 2042, the company has a tough road ahead. It’s virtually unheard of for a AAA franchise like Battlefield to have such a massive loss of players so quickly. It may be too late to save the game, especially with season one being delayed until the summer.