Battlefield 6 appears to have hit a new low on Steam, as the game’s player count recently fell as low as 50,000 concurrent players, a huge decline compared to its all-time peak of more than 747,000. Given that Battlefield 6 recently received a free new content update as part of continued support for Season 1, many would have expected its player count to be much higher on the platform, but a myriad of gameplay issues appear to have deterred many from playing.
Its numbers may be low right now, but Battlefield 6 has had a massively successful few months. After launching on October 10, it quickly became one of the most-played games on Steam, with almost 750,000 concurrent players. Fans of the series have also given the latest entry heavy praise, with 73% of its nearly 120,000 user reviews being positive. This has led Battlefield 6 to become the best-selling shooter of the year, according to EA. While this might be expected from an established franchise such as Battlefield, its predecessor became one of the worst-reviewed games on Steam and was a massive failure for DICE and EA. Thankfully, the studios appear to have made amends and returned Battlefield to its glory days.
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Battlefield 6 Hits New Low On Steam
Despite finding massive success at launch, the concurrent player count numbers for Battlefield 6 appear to have hit an all-time low on Steam. As spotted by The Gamer, SteamDB charts reveal that the shooter fell as low as 50,631 concurrent users today, December 10. It is worth noting, however, that this only takes into account those playing via Steam. Figures for those on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are not made public, so it’s unknown how the title is performing on other platforms. But looking at the charts since launch, there’s a steady decline in players, from an average of 400,000 concurrent players at peak times to about 160,000 in recent days.
What makes this new low most surprising is that DICE has just released a major new update for Battlefield 6, which you would expect to bring in more players than usual. The third patch of Season 1, known as Winter Offensive, launched on December 9, bringing a new winter-themed variant of Empire State, featuring frozen streets and seasonal environmental visuals. Plus, there’s a new time-limited Multiplayer and Gauntlet mode called Ice Lock Gauntlet, playable across Domination, Conquest, and Gauntlet mission variations on Ice Lock Empire State, featuring the event-limited ‘Freeze’ mechanic.
Despite the plethora of new content for players to check out, the latest Battlefield 6 update has caused serious issues, which could be a major reason for the sudden decline in player numbers. Shortly after patch 1.1.3.0 went live, players began reporting stuttering, UI glitches, and further hit registration issues. DICE has said it is actively investigating these problems and provided users with a workaround to prevent the game from stuttering, but a large portion of players may have opted to avoid playing until the studio releases an official hotfix.
It’s been a brilliant year for first-person shooters, especially after the last couple of months. Battlefield returned to form in October, but was met with some stiff competition just a few weeks later when Embark Studios shocked the world with the massively entertaining ARC Raiders. And if gamers didn’t already have enough going on between the two titles, a new Call of Duty entry launched on November 14, with some highly requested community changes, such as the removal of skill-based matchmaking. With three solid shooters all having released alongside each other, the real question is which one will continue to hold steady over the holiday period and into 2026.
- Released
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October 10, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
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Battlefield Studios
