Battlefield 2042 Sees Record Low Player Count on Steam

The aggressive downward spiral of Battlefield 2042 continues. With the game’s first season delayed and bugs galore, players are (understandably) leaving for greener pastures. Despite boasting a player count of over 105,000 only a few months ago, PC numbers have continued to plummet, and new data from SteamDB is absolutely damning.

Yesterday, February 14, Battlefield 2042 only saw 1,921 players. By comparison, Battlefield V saw over 21,000 players during the same 24-hour period, and 2016’s Battlefield 1 pulled in over 7,200 players. According to Steam Charts, the game’s average player count reached only 4,925 over the last month–an almost 90% drop when compared to its November average of 51,299. It’s unclear how many people are playing on Origin and Epic Games, though it’s hard to imagine those numbers being much higher.

Last week, David Goldfarb, a lead designer and writer on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, took to Twitter to comment on the state of 2042.

“I have some questions about that product,” Goldfarb begins. “Really trying to understand why some of these design calls were made. Why are there no smaller infantry maps? Why was 128 player count a thing that didn’t seemingly have any accommodation for infantry? Why are whole maps shipping without any details art?”

Continuing, he questioned the huge amount of bugs and glitches found in the title.  

“Was no one in control of quality over there? Who thought this experience honored the BF sandbox experience and took it forward? I’m astonished that there were this many missteps even knowing the obstacles from higher up. For all my friends and colleagues over there – ugh.” (Read the Twitter thread here.)

Battlefield 2042 was released on November 19, 2021, on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A recent Change.org petition demanding refunds for the game went viral and now sits at over 197,000 signatures. According to industry insider Tom Henderson, EA might be bringing 2042 into a free-to-play business model in the near future.

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