Battlefield 6 Lost 90% Of Its Playerbase And It Makes Sense

For several years now, "Battlefield" has had "Call of Duty" in its crosshairs, with the two military shooter franchises vying for the genre's top spot. Going into 2025, it felt like "Call of Duty" had something to worry about with "Battlefield 6" as the Electronic Arts' series made its big return. The resulting game was very much a step in the right direction, coming off the lackluster "Battlefield 2042" with a big launch in October 2025. However, eight months into this new game's lifecycle, it's clear that the title is facing a familiar set of challenges.

Despite posting impressive concurrent player counts upon its launch, "Battlefield 6" has struggled to maintain its playerbase. While the trend of diminishing returns for live-service games hasn't been exclusive to "Battlefield" lately, the drop in concurrent users for the EA title has been nevertheless been steep, losing over 90% since its peak. Here's why "Battlefield 6" experienced such a significant and sudden drop, how it can possibly recover, and how it compares to "Call of Duty" these days.

According to the "Battlefield 6" profile on Steam, the game's peak concurrent player count was when it debuted this past October. Just through Steam alone, the game clocked in an impressive 747,440 concurrent player count, not including users playing the title on consoles. Within its first three days on the market alone, the game sold over seven million copies across its platforms combined. This makes "Battlefield 6" the fastest-selling title in the franchise's 24-year history to date, as well as the best-selling game in the United States in 2025 overall.

But shortly after the launch, "Battlefield 6" saw its concurrent Steam player count steadily erode. By January, three months after its release, its average concurrent playerbase on Steam dropped to 84,000. As of this writing, eight months after the game's debut, the title's concurrent Steam player peak is just over 45,000. While not factoring in console "Battlefield 6" players, these user counts surely have some correlation to its overall performance.

The warning signs for "Battlefield 6," at least in terms of its PC players, could be seen as early as its launch. Some PC users struggled to launch the game after purchase due to the EA App notifying them that they needed to purchase DLC content to proceed. In rapid response, EA released a patch that fixed the issue but, before the end of the month, other negative feedback took shape. The real attrition began due to lukewarm reception to the game's first season upon its launch on October 25, two weeks after the main title's debut.

The season added a poorly received battle royale mode, with players also unimpressed by the season's in-game cosmetics and new multiplayer map. The game received its second DLC season in February, containing new modes, maps, weapons, vehicles, and cosmetics as part of its update. This season, however, wasn't released until mid-February, nearly four months after the divisive first DLC season. This, along with the usual downturn in concurrent players after a game's launch, likely informed the declining numbers for "Battlefield 6."

The other major development since the debut of "Battlefield 6" was the release of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7" the month after EA's big first-person shooter launch.

On November 17, 2025, Activision released "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7," the latest title in its military first-person shooter franchise. The title is arguably the biggest competitor for "Battlefield 6" and may have taken away some of its playerbase. However,  response to "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7" was tepid, both in terms of user reviews and sales numbers. A far cry from the best "Call of Duty" games, "Black Ops 7" is the lowest user-rated title in the franchise on Metacritic, while its launch weekend saw a third of the concurrent players as 2024's "Black Ops 6."

For as much as "Battlefield 6" may struggle to retain its playerbase, it still won a marked victory over "Call of Duty." One important factor is that "Black Ops 7" is included for premium Game Pass subscribers on Xbox Series X|S and PC, though it's unclear if this affected sales. But given that "Black Ops 7" posted the worst series' sales numbers since 2008, Activision should worry about its franchise. If anything, it demonstrates that fans aren't necessarily interested in more of the same experience and do pay attention to post-game content.

We're certainly rooting for both series to succeed, but assuming players are going to go with whatever comes out each season is a dangerous leap to make.