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Battlefield 2042fell victim to extreme irrelevancy due to the constantly changing gaming industry of modern times. Since its release in 2021, numerous other first-person shooter titles have been released, and amid the dynamic video game landscape of today, the twelfth main instalment in the once popular series failed to maintain its place among gamers.
However, the game witnessed something extraordinarily unexpected last weekend, marking a significant moment that hints at its brighter future.
DICE’s first-person shooter was made free-to-play for the weekend, which resulted inBattlefield 2042seeing a massive inflow of players. As far as the gaming community was concerned, the title was dead, with no signs of being resurrected anytime soon. But against all odds, the game has come back to life, and just one weekend could have changed its whole fate.
Battlefield 2042 Returns on the Gaming Community’s Radar
According to theSteam Charts,Battlefield 2042pulled some of its highest numbers of players during last weekend, when the game was made free-to-play. To put the player counter into perspective, the number was in the thousands before the free weekend officially began, after which it started to gradually increase until the gradient became exponential. On Sunday night, October 15, DICE’s first-person shooter witnessed a player peak that it had not seen in a long while.
In fact, what is even more impressive is thatBattlefield 2042reached six figures, with 101,362 players tuning in to give the game a much-needed chance. This was the highest number of players that the game had ever witnessed, as the Steam Charts stated that the aforementioned figure was an “all-time peak.” DICE’s title saw an unfortunate decline in its player base right after its release, which is a worrying situation for any developer.
At launch,Battlefield 2042had a player count of a little over 100,000, which drastically decreased in the following months, resulting in nearly complete irrelevance, especially during the majority of 2022. Most of the gaming community had forgotten about the game’s existence and moved on to more relevant first-person shooter titles, with no one expecting it to make a blazing comeback two years after its initial release.
This is quite amazing because the upcoming instalment from its main competitive franchise,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, is one of the most anticipated titles of the year, and it also had its second week of open beta during the same weekend.
Battlefield 2042‘s latest success is a testament to how anything can be achieved in the gaming industry if the developer acknowledges its player base and keeps on making significant improvements to its title, regardless of the number of players participating.
Battlefield 2042 Had an Absolutely Horrible Launch on Steam
Battlefield 2042was originally released in October 2021, and to call its launch disastrous would be an understatement and something that the developer never would have expected to happen. DICE’s first-person shooter title became one of the lowest-rated and worst-reviewed video games on Steam due to multiple technical issues. For starters, the game was infested with bugs, glitches, and performance problems that players just could not overlook.
To make matters even worse,Battlefield 2042also took various gameplay detours that fans of the long-running franchise were unable to get behind. In addition to the aforementioned issues, there were also some features that the game’s community was really looking forward to, only to find out that some of them were not even included in the final product.
What is even crazier is that shortly after its launch, its three-year-old predecessor,Battlefield 5from 2018, had a bigger player base than the 2021 title.
Because ofBattlefield 2042‘s horrible launch, the EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, had an open confessional conversation with investors, admitting that the game was unable to “meet expectations.” It would have made perfect sense for DICE to completely abandon the game after that, but its belief in its title paid off in the long run. The player count keeps increasing exponentially, with the number now at 103,492, which is even higher than its peak during the weekend.
This is a fresh opportunity for DICE to keep the newly found momentum going forBattlefield 2042.
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Osama Farooq
Senior Gaming Content Editor / Critic
Articles Published :356
Ever since Osama was gifted the glorious PS2 more than two decades back, video games have formed a major part of his life, ranging from spending hours playing through every single Dragon Ball game he could find to witnessing the gaming industry evolve into something extraordinary in modern times. Building his collection of PlayStation consoles throughout the years all the way up until PS5, he prefers single-player experiences like The Last of Us and Persona, while also letting off steam on a daily basis with casual EA Sports FC matches. But the current rise in online multiplayer shooters will never really appeal to his old-school self.
