Six years after its release, Battlefield 1 has re-entered Steam’s top 10 bestseller list and boasts massive concurrent player numbers.

 

As spotted by Emopulse, the shooter, which was first released in October 2016, has seen a huge jump in popularity and has seen the highest number of concurrent players ever. It is worth noting that the game was added to Steam in 2020.

The player count, which reached 49,732 in the last 24 hours, is about 44,000 more players than Battlefield 2042 registered during the same period.

There are probably several reasons for this. Firstly, Battlefield 1 is heavily discounted at the moment, costing $4.79 / £4.19. However, even before the resurrection of Battlefield 1, Battlefield 2042 only hovered between 8,000 and 15,000 concurrent players on Steam in recent months, according to SteamDB.

Battlefield V, the predecessor to Battlefield 2042, is also seeing more players than Battlefield 2042 despite not being on sale. Battlefield V had a peak of 15,454 players compared to 5,379 in 2042.

Another reason is the general poor reception of Battlefield 2042 by the Battlefield community. Since its release, the game has been criticized by players for its lack of compelling levels, a redesign of the classic Battlefield class system, and a lack of consistent, meaningful updates.

“We launched the game with strong stability, but as more players experienced the full game, it became clear that there were unexpected performance issues that we needed to address,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said on a conference call last year referring to the problems.

Wilson continued, “Some of the design decisions we made with the game didn’t sit well with everyone in our community. We’re fully committed to realizing the game’s full potential, and we’re fully committed to our Battlefield fans.”

EA chief Vince Zampella also offered his thoughts on the poor critical and commercial response. “I think they’ve strayed a little too far from what Battlefield is,” he said. “They tried some things that were maybe ambitious: increasing the number of players, etc. I don’t think they spent enough time trying to understand what would make it fun.”

In December, EA announced plans to create a “cohesive Battlefield universe” in addition to sweeping changes to the franchise’s development structure.

As part of those plans, former DICE CEO Oscar Gabrielson left EA entirely, while Zampella took on a new role as franchise overseer.

“It’s a completely new structure,” Zampella told Barrons. “We’re bringing multiple studios together. We’re bringing together the best talent and giving them time to make something amazing.”

One such studio is the recently announced Ridgeline Games, led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto.