'Battlefield 2042' Player Count Is Even Starting To Drop Below 'Battlefield 1'

Battlefield 2042 players numbers on PC are starting to dwindle drastically, to the point that 2016's Battlefield 1 is actually starting to overtake it.

Released towards the end of 2021, Battlefield 2042 hasn't quite hit the heights DICE and EA were hoping for. The futuristic military shooter has been riddled with bugs and server issues since launch, which has in turn led to scores of negative reviews and unhappy fans.

Earlier this month, Steam player numbers indicated that Battlefield 2042 was becoming less popular than 2018's Battlefield V, as the World War II shooter's numbers started to tick up, and even outdo the latest instalment.

A quick look at SteamDB tells me this is still very much the case. At the time of writing, Battlefield V has nearly 13,000 players to Battlefield 2042's 4,800. Not a good look, when the 2018 entry in your franchise has more than twice as many players as the newest chapter.

But it gets worse. The six-year-old Battlefield 1 is very slowly beginning to catch up to Battlefield 2042, with nearly 4,600 players as I write these words. That is... yikes, is what it is.

It's unclear if something similar is happening PlayStation and Xbox consoles as player data isn't as readily available. But even if this issues is contained solely to PC and Steam users, it's a damning indictment of the current quality of Battlefield 2042, and a reminder of the work DICE needs to do to bring gamers back to Battlefield 2042.