Should we just forget about Battlefield 2042? Or can it recover?

There have been few failures in the world of gaming quite as remarkable as Battlefield 2042. It was a trainwreck from the moment the beta was released late in 2021, and months after the launch, it is still struggling to recover. At this point, the dwindling player base is hanging on to a desperate hope that EA will revive this game, but many consider that to be a fool’s hope. With the following for the game being all but extinguished and the franchise being scarred forever, we’re asking – should we just forget about Battlefield 2042?

Bye-Bye Battlefield?

Should we just forget about Battlefield 2042? Or can it recover?

Image Credit: Android Gram

When it launched, the player count for the game was substantial – at least for a Battlefield title. However, fans quickly realised that the game had been released in a completely broken, empty, and desolate state. While we were well aware of some shortcomings in Battlefield 2042, the overall state of the game post-launch was quite honestly an embarrassment to all involved. Within a few short weeks, the player count, interest on social media, and even the ‘professional’ creators backing Battlefield had backed off into darkness.

Here are some figures to play with, just to show you how far Battlefield 2042 has fallen:

  • Peaked at 100k on SteamCharts.com in November 2021, the current peak for March 2025 is 3,538.
  • Peaked at 340k viewers on TwitchTracker.com in November 2021, currently averaging around 387 viewers.
  • By contrast, Battlefield V, the previous title, boasts a 30-day peak player count of 27k on Steam.

Now, it’s unfair to count just those figures, as Battlefield can be played on PlayStation, Xbox, and platforms like Origin and EA Desktop on PC. However, across the board, Battlefield 2042 is a dying, dwindling topic, and even the developers behind the game have all but given up.

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It was revealed recently that the Battlefield 2042 season 1 would be pushed back to the summer of 2025. Furthermore, simple updates such as the inclusion of a scoreboard in a multiplayer match were only just released in March 2025 – a delay of five months, post-launch. At an internal session, EA blamed the launch of Halo Infinite and the COVID-19 pandemic for the failure of the game, a move that wasn’t taken well by the gaming industry in general.

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Can It Battlefield 2042 Recover?

Honestly, there’s no way this game can recover – the damage is definitely done. If there’s any update coming in the future containing real value, we just can’t determine what that value will be. There are already talks of making Hazard Zone, the battle-royale-ish mode introduced in Battlefield 2042, totally free-to-play, with multiplayer potentially following. It’s a last-ditch effort to re-introduce some kind of community to the crumbling world of Battlefield 2042.

Ultimately, with the complete inexistence of a Battlefield 2042 campaign, an empty multiplayer platform riddled with issues, and no sign of a meaningful roadmap, this game may have already gone past the point of no return. Should the Battlefield 2042 player count dip even further, EA may just write it off for good.

So, what do you think? Should we just forget about Battlefield 2042?

AESA
AESA

The AESA is a member of the International Esports Federation (IeSF) as a national member representing Australia. Currently the IeSF comprises of over 88 nations and is signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency and actively working towards SportAccord membership.