Battlefield 2042 continues clawing itself back from the dead with a second consecutively successful weekend. On Oct. 21, it set a new all-time record in player numbers, surpassing its initial launch-day burst. This comes after EA Games made the game free last weekend and significantly discounted its price on Steam.
Both decisions proved fruitful as Battlefield 2042 is seeing unprecedented activity that may revive the game and repair the damage done by its rocky release. Steamcharts shows that BF2042 peaked at around 107,000 players on Oct. 21, with its average numbers tripling in the past 30 days. To put everything into perspective, BF2042‘s peak concurrent player count was a mere 11,000 in September, making its recent success a nearly tenfold increase.
It also placed the game near Steam’s coveted top 10 list reserved primarily for live-action titles, except for the unfaltering Baldur’s Gate 3. For a short period of time, Battlefield 2042 even managed to beat out its top competitor, Call of Duty, receding to number 13 to CoD’s 11th place at the time of writing.
Battlefield 2042 can, at best, be characterized as a flop compared to its predecessors, as both Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V have continuously outperformed 2042 on the Steam charts. These recent changes, however, have put even that debate to rest, with the latter resurging when everyone thought it was long dead.
Though the free weekend is long past, Battlefield 2042 is still on sale and costs $9.49, which may be the magnet pulling so many new players in. Whether the game will continue growing after the sale is over is uncertain, though it may instigate Dice and EA to make new decisions regarding the title. If nothing, they will surely have a lot to learn from the situation, including the dark arts of necromancy.
Published: Oct 21, 2023 12:43 pm