although Battlefield 2042 There is no doubt that the state of the technology is better now than it was when it was released last November, and sentiment around the game and developer DICE is at an all-time low. The studio’s slow response to community feedback or outlining future plans has left many into despair.
DICE’s first Twitter post of the year, seemingly teasing a new map, didn’t help either. The main Battlefield 2042 subreddit nearly shut down because it became so toxic, with some people turning from criticizing the game’s design to mocking its developers.
But you can clearly see another trend forming in the background: players tracking the number of gamers so much that they seem to want it to fail. It all started at the end of the year, when Battlefield 2042’s player base on Steam took a hit.
Since then, things have only gotten worse, with more and more players dropping the game every day. Battlefield 2042 is no longer the most popular game in the series, at least on Steam, ceding that spot to Battlefield 5. Today, the game is close to ceding the second-place spot to Battlefield 1.
A quick glance at SteamDB’s comparison chart reveals it all. This has undoubtedly disappointed DICE and many fans of the series, but the constant push to provide daily updates about the game’s dwindling player base is a little creepy. In fact, the numbers for console and EA’s own Origin platform may be better, although we can only speculate.
If you browse the Battlefield 2042 subreddit regularly, you’ll find at least one post a day about the game’s daily concurrent player count on Steam. Late last year, the furious fans gathered to expect Battlefield 5 to surpass it. Now, this has moved to Battlefield 1.
Typically, when this happens, the subreddit is filled with rosy recaps about how great this or that Battlefield game was, and how much DICE seems to have fallen out of favor.
The craze to tag multiplayer with death is not unique to Battlefield 2042. Many fans of big shooters have been through a similar period, not least Apex Legends – which continues to break EA and Respawn records, even if it doesn’t dominate mindshare like it did before.
But in the case of Battlefield 2042, that interest appears to be malicious. As a longtime Battlefield player, I have my own grievances with the game, and I can’t recall a time when the community was so anxious about losing the game, rather than the casual player who simply quit and let it die like most people seem to have done.
Now, everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what DICE has to say about the future of Battlefield 2042.
