If you asked Battlefield fans which game is considered the lowest point in the series, chances are, you'll see Battlefield 2042 as the game named more often than not. This isn't just a random opinion, either, as Battlefield 2042 has a middling average score of 68 on Metacritic, which is something we don't often see from the brand.
However, the game has seen a massive resurgence thanks to Electronic Arts and DICE's marketing strategy of incentivizing gamers to play BF2042 in order to earn rewards for Battlefield 6 that can be claimed once it's released in October.
It looks like this resurgence is even bigger than we thought, as BF2042 has blown past its previous player high numbers when the BF6 Battle Pass content was released.
At the time of this article, Battlefield 2042 has over 60,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, with a 24-hour high of over 74,000. Bear in mind that this does not factor in the EA App, Epic Games Store, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, so the number might even be triple that when you factor in all the other platforms.
In comparison, the Call of Duty Steam app, which houses Warzone and multiple Call of Duty games, peaked at 66,000 in 24 hours. Same with BF2042, this does not include the player count for Battle.net, and console players.
This is incredible to see, and it's quite possibly a testament to how warmly Battlefield players felt about the BF6 Open Beta that was held this month.
Of course, if you factor in consoles, I have no doubt that Call of Duty has BF2042 beat handily, given the COD series has primarily been a console-first franchise.
Even if that's the case, this is still a massive win for EA, as it essentially demonstrates to the publisher that fans are eager for the Battlefield franchise. Will this translate to sales? We can't say for sure, though EA is in a good spot, as BF6 is trending ahead of Black Ops 7 based on PS5 pre-order numbers. However, we doubt Battlefield 6 will be able to match Black Ops 7's sales figures when all is said and done.
In related news, the Black Ops 7 reveal got ratioed, as comments of it were flooded with excitement for Battlefield 6.
For those looking forward to Battlefield 6, a recent datamine unearthed a ton of soldier skins, and it's good news so far, as there are no silly outfits - at least for the time being.