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Battlefield 2042 is bleeding players as launch issues continue

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Setting aside all the technical problems, Battlefield 2042 was actually fairly popular at release, reaching the top five most actively played games on Steam, and similar lists on Xbox Live. Today, less than two weeks on from launch, the game has lost over 60% of its active players on Steam.

As seen on Steam DB, Battlefield's peak concurrent player count over the last 24 hours was 34,005, down from its 105,397 peak on launch day. Losing players after release is fairly normal for most games, but the speed with which this happened is concerning.

Indeed, those numbers only reflect the population on Steam. Battlefield 2042 is available directly on Origin, and through the Epic Games Store. Since there is no in-game player count, we can't say for certain whether things are similarly grim on these platforms, too.

However, one other statistic does paint an unflattering picture about the game's popularity. According to True Achievements, only 43% of Xbox players managed to reach level 15, which is fairly early on in progression and can easily be achieved in a couple of days of play. As for level 25, only 22% of players reached it. Things are a little better on PlayStation, where 36% of players unlocked the level 25 Trophy.

For reference, level 25 is nowhere close to earning you all of the game's unlocks.

Anecdotally, I've been running into more AI bots in public matches than usual recently, even with cross-play on. Hazard Zone, for instance, takes way too long to get a game going that it's pointless to queue up for it.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Does anyone track metrics for this to actually compare to what is actually “bad” and what is normal?

I was actually about to ask this. The article makes the obvious point that games that launch high crash harder because of course they do. The question I have is, is this just the normal trajectory of a game finding its equilibrium. People were going ape over FH5's numbers however that game is gone from a peak of 80K to daily maximums of around 20K within a little over half a month and we're not hand wringing over that.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
A lot of attention is being given to this for some reason. I'm seeing articles like this all over.

It runs great on both by PS but dice does have some work here. It's not going to just die like the heavy speculation suggests. It will find its legs its a very fun Battlefield game.
 
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CitizenZ

Banned
again Steam DB is not a good metrics when most use Origin, I have no trouble finding games - tons of people play. Level 25 is still decent play time, it's been out what? 2 weeks?

who plays so much that they get to lvl 15 in 2 days, stupid article

Steam is the only one with balls to show wtf is going on. Game is as I predicted a fcking mess.
 
I tried to play this game on my XSX with the Trial that's offered to EA Play/Game Pass users. The tutorial was fun and the modes looked interesting, but I couldn't load into the game thanks to some weird "unable to load persistence" bug. The fix was to delete the game and redownload it or change some settings on my xbox system. That shouldn't be a solution to a bug and it made me grateful that I didn't spend money on this game at launch.

I'll wait for a sale and give it another try later. They're not doing themselves any favors releasing a game in this state.
 

Klik

Member
As a huge Battlefield fan since BF2, this just feels like chinese version of wannabe battlefield game that tries to be like warzone/apex legends.Its so sad and disappointing to see BF always trying to be like other games instead of sticking what they do best.

I guess most of quality DICE devs left after BF1 and this team doesn't have knowledge and ideas what to do with Battlefield
 

SZips

Member
again Steam DB is not a good metrics when most use Origin, I have no trouble finding games - tons of people play. Level 25 is still decent play time, it's been out what? 2 weeks?

who plays so much that they get to lvl 15 in 2 days, stupid article
I keep seeing this statement about how "most use Origin."

Says who? Where is this confirmed by any official source?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This game will be on game pass within 6 months from now max
thats a given. battlefield 5 was put on ea play around 6 months or so after release. gamepass includes ea play
That's where I'm playing it. BF1 and BFV were 9 months later (the ballpark trend for most EA games). But for bad sales it's faster. ME Andromeda was fast (7 months) and so were some of their budget games like Unravel (4 months).

See you guys on BF 2042 in May 2022!
 
I refunded the Series X version and I've uninstalled the PC Version for now. I plan on coming back to it after a few big patches hit the PC version and(hopefully) they fix a good bit of these issues. I can see a good game in there somewhere I think, and I'm a longtime battlefield fan...hoping they get it together but we'll see
 

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
Im really bummed about 2042. I waited so long for a new modern setting BF game, the originals were such classics.

Its just a letdown overall for me. Specialists suck, the maps are mediocre, it feels incomplete, the tech issues are brutal. Just an overall dud.
 

Inviusx

Member
Fortunately in Australia our FPS communities are only split 3 ways. Battlefield, COD and CS Go. This game will have full servers until the next one.
 

jigglet

Banned
Stupid article.

A huge drop off on Steam after a few weeks is normal. But how does it stack up to other games?

Likewise with percentage of people who've reached a certain level. Maybe that's quite normal too?

News isn't taking raw data and just regurgitating it. I can do that myself. Real news is the hard work put into doing some research and providing some perspective and analysis. The real news is digging deeper than surface level "data" and looking for "information".

Fucking lazy journalists.

I am no BF fan. In fact I hate it. But what I hate more are lazy journalists.
 
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Sony

Nintendo
It'll recover later when it's fixed. I'm personally waiting for the game to be in a good state so I can finally play.
 
why do we get this article for every major release, for the last couple years.

when do we stop being surprised that Steam users stop playing new games after 4 hours and go back to counter strike and dota
 

Kenneth Haight

Gold Member
not like this GIF

Game looks fun but no way am I giving them £70 for this. As many others on this forum have said, it actually makes sense to not buy games on day one (especially multiplayer).

BF1 was insane fun, didn’t even bother with V and now this. How the mighty have fallen.
 

Godot25

Banned
On TrueAchievements chart which data is based on 2,6 million Xbox Live users, Battlefield 2042 ranks on 15th place. Two weeks after release. And that includes EA Play trials.
Just for comparison, Halo Infinite is 1st and Call of Duty Vanguard is 5th.
 

Thief1987

Member
I was actually about to ask this. The article makes the obvious point that games that launch high crash harder because of course they do. The question I have is, is this just the normal trajectory of a game finding its equilibrium. People were going ape over FH5's numbers however that game is gone from a peak of 80K to daily maximums of around 20K within a little over half a month and we're not hand wringing over that.
Shitting on BF is just current hot topic and modern gaming "journalism" is all about generating clicks. Like going by this metric you can write the same article about Halo Infinite for example, which also lost 60% of players( 117k today's peak vs 277k ATH), and it's a free to play game.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
again Steam DB is not a good metrics when most use Origin, I have no trouble finding games - tons of people play. Level 25 is still decent play time, it's been out what? 2 weeks?

who plays so much that they get to lvl 15 in 2 days, stupid article
So anyone who plays more than you are stupid?

Also, 25k are more than enough to have a healthy player base.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
No Man's Sky and that Final Fantasy MMO got a pretty good glowup.
The difference is that anthem and battlefield is released by the same company.

Bfv also went of life support pretty fast.
 

Concern

Member
I'm not going back until hovercrafts are stopped climbing buildings, makes the game unbearable.

They better fuckin not. Only reason I keep going back to the trial is for scaling buildings and running people over on rooftops with it.

By far the most fun aspect of the game imo lol
 

HTK

Banned
Good, the sooner this game dies the better. In fact soon as Warzone Pacific comes out it'll be the final nail in the coffin.
 

Kenneth Haight

Gold Member
y'all need to stop complaining and just buy the new skins.

xkjr51z2f3381.jpg
Is this real? I’m all for a bit of fun but this is bordering on getting too close to COD and Fortnite. The whole thing about battlefield was that it was always a bit more grounded, I’ve seen some of the ending lines from the specialists on the round finish screen and they are pure cringe.
 

Luipadre

Member
Warzones new map will suck this games population dry. The new update brought back rubberbanding, half of the features they implemented isnt working properly. Its just a huge mess.
 
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it's the same old shit with BF. launches in a buggy mess but then it improves a bit and people say it's really good now.

maybe try making a good game at launch. you'd think DICE would know WTF they are doing by now.
 
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