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It’s one thing to be ambitious, and another to be unrealistic. The forthcoming Battlefield 6 seems to fall under the latter category, as publisher EA is reportedly expecting a 100 million player count for the shooter.
The tidbit comes from an in-depth report by Ars Technica, exploring the various concerns and unreasonable goals for the game. To put things into context, 2021’s Battlefield 2042 saw around 22 million players, while the franchise’s best-selling title, Battlefield 1, reached around “maybe 30 million plus” players, according to an anonymous source.
“Obviously, Battlefield has never achieved those numbers before,” stated one source. “Nothing in the market research or our quality deliverables indicates that we would be anywhere near that,” said another.
This puts the desired goal three times more than its peak, which “very few” developers believe is attainable. Battle royale modes in competitor entries like Call of Duty served as a point of reference, with Call of Duty Warzone hitting 100 million players back in April 2021, and Fortnite nabbing over 200 million players in 2018. Still, it should be noted that the former took around a year to reach the figure, and that’s coming from one of the most popular first-person shooter (FPS) series around.
It’s not like development is moving smoothly behind the scenes, either. Battlefield 6 reportedly has a whopping budget of over US$400 million, with the team also suffering from constant burnout due to its massive scope. The game will reportedly feature a free-to-play mode, multiple premium online options, and even a full single-player suite, as well as a community-driven game mode, but these plans have only led to rising tensions between DICE, the original franchise creators, and EA leadership, who have taken more control over the next entry.
According to the publisher, Battlefield 6 will officially be unveiled sometime this summer. The big question is: will the hype be enough?
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
