'Battlefield V' Currently Has More Players Than 'Battlefield 2042'

Battlefield 2042 players on PC appear to be leaving the game in droves to go play Battlefield V instead, if current Steam numbers are anything to go by.

Released towards the end of 2021, Battlefield 2042 hasn't exactly been the smash-hit DICE and EA were hoping for. The futuristic military shooter has been plagued with technical issues since launch, which led to waves of negative reviews and very unhappy fans.

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Battlefield 2042 is currently one of the worst-reviewed Steam games in history, so it might not come as a huge surprise to learn that the new game has less than half the number of players as 2018's World War II shooter Battlefield V.

According to the ever-reliable SteamDB, Battlefield 2042 has just over 6,900 active players at the time of writing. Battlefield V has nearly 14,000. I can't speak for EA, but I cannot imagine for one second the company is thrilled that a 2018 entry in the Battlefield franchise has twice as many players as its brand-new instalment.

This isn't just some freak anomaly, either. Battlefield 2042's downward trend appears to have started around the festive period. As pointed out by industry insider Tom Henderon just before Christmas, Battlefield V's numbers continued to slowly tick up while the newer game gradually lost players.

Battlefield V player numbers have now surpassed #Battlefield2042 on Steam. pic.twitter.com/wS35FnQ2k4

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) December 24, 2021

It's unclear if a similar thing is happening on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as the player data isn't as readily available. But even if this is only occurring on one platform, it's just another reminder of the work DICE is going to need to put in to win players back over to Battlefield 2042.