Battlefield 6 launched on Steam with nearly 750,000 concurrent players, breaking Call of Duty's record

Yevgeny Demkivskyi - 13 October, 01:56 PM

Battlefield 6 officially launched on October 10th and set a franchise record in its first hours with 747,440 concurrent players on Steam. This made it the second most popular game on the platform after Counter-Strike 2. It also surpassed Call of Duty's previous record of 491,670 players and put Battlefield 6 into the top 15 most popular games in Steam history.

The launch was met with a huge influx of users, so much so that EA and Battlefield Studios even temporarily implemented a queue system. It avoided the massive crashes that often occur during the releases of large multiplayer games. Within an hour of the launch, over 606,000 players were recorded, and a peak of almost 750,000 was reached within a few hours.

The interest in the game was evident during the open beta in August, when over 500,000 users were playing simultaneously. Now, the numbers confirm that the Battlefield series is reaching a new level of popularity, at least on PC. The number of players on consoles remains under wraps, as Sony and Microsoft do not disclose it.

Portal Mode, a tool for creating and remixing maps, attracted special attention. Within hours of its release, fans recreated the classic Call of Duty 4 map "Shipment" and announced other fan projects.

A key factor in the success was the involvement of Vince Zampella in the development. He is one of the most renowned game designers in the industry, co-founder of Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment. He was responsible for the creation of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2007), which defined the genre of modern military shooters, as well as the Titanfall and Apex Legends series. In 2021, EA tasked him with leading the development of the Battlefield franchise, and Battlefield 6 became the first major release under his direct supervision.

Record-breaking performance, stable server performance, and community activity indicate that Battlefield 6 has one of the most successful launches in the genre in recent years.