Battlefield 2042 only launched last month, but its Steam player-base has already seen a massive dip of roughly 70%, according to SteamDB. The site’s charts show that the game’s peak number of players over the past 24 hours was a little over 30,000 — a far cry from the roughly 100,000 concurrent players that were present at its early access launch. It’s worth noting these numbers only include players on Steam; player counts on other platforms are not a factor here.
At this point in time, 2042’s 24-hour peak player count is barely ahead of its predecessor’s. Battlefield V, released in 2018, accumulated 21,000 players over the last 24 hours, according to its SteamDB page.
Both games’ numbers pale in comparison to the player count of one of Battlefield’s competitors, Halo Infinite, which SteamDB indicates brought in a whopping 117,000 players over the past 24 hours. However, Infinite also has the benefit of being a free-to-play game.
Battlefield 2042’s declining player base can likely be attributed to the game’s rough launch. The shooter was missing several features upon release, such as voice chat and viewable scoreboards. Several bugs and balance issues also plagued the game early on. Developer DICE has been working on remedying some of these issues, but it’s hard to deny the game didn’t make a good first impression.
And first impressions matter a lot. They can have large implications, and they have for EA’s stock. According to CNBC, EA’s stock has dropped by roughly 18% since Battlefield’s early access launch on November 12.
