Battlefield 6 live launch coverage: All the news, updates, and reactions as the most-anticipated FPS of the year goes live

One hour until Battlefield-o'clock

Battlefield 6 launches globally in one hour. Here's the exact release time for your region:

• West Coast US: 8 am PDT
• East Coast US: 11 am EDT
• UK: 4 pm BST
• Europe: 5 pm CEST
• Australia: 2 am AEDT (October 11)
• New Zealand: 4 am NZST (October 11)

Everything set? Let's go over the ready-up checklist:

• Game pre-load complete?
• System requirements reviewed?
• Install that Battlefield 6-specific video driver?
• Headset charged?
• Sick day secured?

EA is warning players via X that Battlefield 6 is likely to have a login queue when it goes live in less than an hour.

"Battlefield 6 launches today at 15:00UTC and we anticipate many of you to login at the same time during this initial moment. To help ensure a smooth and stable login experience for everyone, we’re adding a queue system during this and other peak moments."

We also had to contend with a login queue during the busiest hours of the August beta, though it wasn't the headache that queues typically are. The line moved quite fast, so maybe we can hope for the same today.

Read our Battlefield 6 review-in-progress

While we wait for servers to go up (and subsequently melt), be sure to check out the Battlefield 6 review-in-progress we published yesterday. We won't be giving our final, scored verdict until we've played more multiplayer with actual humans, but there's still plenty to talk about.

TL;DR? Multiplayer rocks, campaign stinks, and Portal has promise (but we haven't gotten to play with it yet):

"Place your palm on the pavement, and you can feel the low rumble of a hobby yearning for the return of what we loved 15 years ago: the spectacle of scale, the unserious chaos of vehicular warfare, red grunts vs. blue grunts, the permission to make your own rules, and an environment where the guy obsessed with metas is having the least fun. That is the pitch of Battlefield 6, and so far, it's a bullseye."

'This is what a well-optimized game looks like in 2025'

"After all the furore surrounding Borderlands 4's performance woes last month—and a year that seems filled with games designed to give mid-range machines a thorough kicking—it's truly refreshing to test something that feels like it's been designed from the ground up with smooth frame rates in mind."

PC Gamer's Andy Edser placed Battlefield 6 under the microscope in our performance analysis and found that yes, it's impressively optimized for a big-budget game that looks this stunning.

Servers are live, go go goooooooo

Uh oh

The bad news: Login queues are big

The good news: They seem to be moving pretty quick?

News writer Lincoln Carpenter managed to get through a 100k queue in just a minute or two. Hopefully, you'll be as lucky.

Game dev Matavatar has already made a decent Shipment remake using Portal. You can search "Shipment" in the Community tab to find people hosting it!

We've all been there

EA App errors

Some folks who installed Battlefield 6 through the EA App are running into a very frurstrating error: The game insists nothing is installed, and they simply can't play. EA has acknowledged the problem and is working on it.

"We're aware of an issue preventing players from accessing the game with some receiving an error stating they need to purchase DLC or similar. Stay tuned for further updates as the team investigates this issue."

Join the PC Gamer Battlefield 6 server!

Make a server, and they will come. To celebrate the inclusion of a persistent server browser in Battlefield 6 (and to put that Portal mode through its paces), I've made a PC Gamer server for folks looking for a more classic experience: Big maps only and class-locked weapons.

The server is called [PC Gamer] Classic Conquest 24/7 [CLOSED WEAPONS] [BIG MAPS]. Portal code is X8C3. You can find the server by searching "PC Gamer" in the Community tab.

Current map rotation: Operation Firestorm, Mirak Valley, New Sobek City, Empire State, Liberation Peak. See you there!

Launch meta diagnosis

According to guides writer Rory Norris, who's gotten to play the most Battlefield 6 multiplayer with other humans so far, one of the strongest loadout combos out of the gate isn't all that different from the open beta.

Be on the lookout for the M4A1, a dominant carbine equippable on all classes, paired with a shotgun with the Assault gun sling.

"With a brisk 900RPM firing rate and solid damage to boot, all you need to do is pull in the recoil with a Double-Port Brake muzzle and Alloy Vertical grip, and you're set. Hell, at Mastery 26, you can get the 50MW Blue laser accessory, which makes it more precise when aiming on the move. Best of all, being a carbine, the M4A1 is nimble.

"What's better than just the M4A1 or the M87A1? Both. You'll feel like John Wick killing people with your carbine, then swapping to your shotgun on a dime, and then to your pistol when things get really scrappy and you've exhausted all your ammo."

EA issued an update on the "Installation of Content" issues many are experiencing with the EA App version of Battlefield 6.

"We're actively investigating an issue where some players on the EA App are encountering an error stating they need to purchase DLC to play. Resolving this is the top of our priority.

"The team believes we have found the cause for this issue, and are in the process of validating a potential fix and will provide an update when we have it. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this. We are doing everything we can to get those players affected in as soon as possible."

Gun spotlight: DRS-IAR (LMG)

If you plan on playing a lot of Support, keep an eye on the DRS-AIR early on. It's the second LMG unlocked by ranking up, and its quirk is that it's essentially a normal assault rifle with LMG attachment options. The in-game description says as much:

"A reliable LSW that blurs the boundary into service rifle. Attachments equipped decide how to best use this versatile firearm."

So if you prefer assault rifles but want to stick to LMGs with your Support loadout, the base DRS setup will feel familiar: a 32-round magazine, high fire rate, and quick ADS time.