Battlefield 6's open beta is already the most popular Battlefield of all time on Steam, and the platform's 44th most-played game ever

A recon in Battlefield 6 looks down their sniper rifle at a foe.

(Image credit: EA)

Since time immemorial, mankind has struggled with its nemesis and ultimate predator: the helicopter. No wonder, then, that in the wake of that trailer which exploded around 1.46 helicopters per minute, half the human race has apparently poured into the Battlefield 6 open beta, catapulting it into Steam's top-100 most-played games of all time (per SteamDB).

In other words, it's instantly become Steam's most popular Battlefield launch ever. Though there is a caveat there: EA only recently started launching Battlefield games simultaneously on Steam.

At time of writing, Battlefield 6 has just pipped the 300k player mark, sitting pretty at 308,310 concurrents (which is, naturally, also its all-time peak; the beta only opened up a couple of hours ago). That makes it the 44th most-played game on Steam of all time by concurrent players, right below Elden Ring Nightreign at 43 and—of all things—Skyrim at 45.

That makes it, by some margin, Steam's most-played Battlefield ever. But like I said, take that with a grain of salt. We're only recently out of the dark days when EA hoarded its games into the EA App (née Origin) and didn't put them on Steam at all—it only crawled back to Valve's platform in 2020. That means every recent Battlefield except 2042 didn't benefit from the kind of launch-day rush that can goose a game's numbers.

Even so, Battlefield 6 is leaving them in the dust. Battlefield 2042's open beta is Steam's second most-played entry in the series, but at a paltry all-time peak of 156,665 players, Battlefield 6 has already near-enough doubled that in just a couple of hours of availability. Battlefield 2042 full-launch count of 107,376, meanwhile, is barely visible in 6's rearview mirror.

battlefield 6 portal — (Image credit: EA)

It's not going to stop there, of course, and I'd be astounded if Battlefield 6 didn't end up handily outstripping Nightreign and the games above it—Destiny 2, the Mecha Break demo, and OG Counter-Strike—in the near future.

After all, I'm given to understand that this seems like a good Battlefield so far. PCG's FPS czar Morgan Park dared to hope that Battlefield is really back this time after his preview, and EA has been playing against character by making some actually popular decisions.

For instance, letting players have classic class weapons and not forcing the lamentable EA App on you if you play on Steam. With Call of Duty festooned with garish skins and filled with unhappy players, it's all out there for Battlefield's taking.

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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