Yesterday, EA held its earnings call for the last quarter. The company gave details to shareholders on how its games have been performing. Highlights included FIFA 22 being the best-selling game in western countries in 2021. As expected, EA also admitted that Battlefield 2042 had failed to meet expectations. When asked by shareholders for sales figures on Battlefield 2042 EA refused to provide the information and said it was pointless to do so because Battlefield makes up such a small portion of the company’s revenue.
Typically, EA would provide more insight into how the game was doing than just saying it was “disappointing.” EA CEO Andrew Wilson did say that he believes Battlefield developer DICE would be able to turn the situation around. However, if the latest player figures are anything to go by, that could be an impossible task. When talking about turning Battlefield 2042 around, Wilson said that “DICE is a studio that has been able to do this a number of times now.” While DICE was able to turn Battlefield V around after its difficult launch, the situation for Battlefield 2042 appears to be much more difficult.
This week, Battlefield 2042‘s player count dropped below both of the previous Battlefield games on Steam. At the time of writing, Battlefield 2042 has a 24-hour peak of 4,754 players compared to Battlefield V’s 26,919. For reference, Battlefield 2042’s 24-hour peak puts it behind games like 2015’s Black Ops III, 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas, and indie game House Flipper.
EA’s refusal to go into detail about how badly Battlefield 2042 sales have fared is telling in and of itself. EA has pledged to try and fix the issues with the game that players have. However, in doing so the company has delayed the start of season one to the summer. That may well be the decision that kills the game off for good.