Battlefield 1 took gamers back to the trenches of World War 1 in 2016, and gamers are returning in significant numbers to the 6-year-old game on Steam in 2022. Battlefield 1 is currently being played more on Steam than any other title in the long-running franchise. The gap between the latest release, Battlefield 2042, and Battlefield 1 has approached the point of being historically significant for fans of the franchise.
The Battlefield franchise started 20 years ago with Battlefield 1942 allowing a massive, for the time, 64 players into one match on a giant battleground. Since then, EA's premier shooter franchise has set itself apart from the competition by focusing on large-scale ground battles. Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Hardline experimented with smaller match counts designed for better performances on console, but the heart of the franchise remains large-scale combat on PC. Through the 20-year history of the franchise, Battlefield has experienced ups and downs in popularity, but the current renewed interest in Battlefield 1 stands out as a statistical outlier.
This weekend, Battlefield 1 reached an all-time high concurrent player count of 51,950 players on Steam. The previous high was achieved on July 22, 2021, with 43,332 total concurrent players. What makes Battlefield 1's achievement more impressive is that the latest game in the franchise, Battlefield 2042, only has a total of 5,435 players over the same period. This is not the first time Battlefield 1 has had more players, but it is the first time that the gap has been this close to a 50,000-player difference.
Battlefield 2042 launched in 2020, the same year Battlefield 1 was first available on Steam after its original EA Origin release, and was immediately derided by fans and critics for its poor performance. Developer DICE publicly stated that they had learned lessons from Battlefield 2042. While the poor performance of the latest game in the franchise can be partially credited for the success Battlefield 1 is currently experiencing, other factors could be influencing the surge in popularity. Battlefield 1 is currently on sale for the deeply discounted price of $4.79, which could be enticing more gamers to give it a try. The unique World War 1 setting could also be more interesting to players burned out on so many modern and World War 2-themed shooters, which could explain why Battlefield 5 is not performing as well as its predecessor.
Top Twitch streamer Shroud may say that Battlefield 2042 is better than Modern Warfare 2, but the player numbers say otherwise. EA announced late last year that the developer was restructuring the Battlefield development teams at DICE and would be looking into a shared online Battlefield universe for future games. Until then, Battlefield fans are expressing their gaming preferences in historic numbers.
Battlefield 1 is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: VGC