It seems the hype for Battlefield's return is very real. The Battlefield 6 Open Beta has been a success on PC this weekend, hitting a peak of over half a million concurrent players on Steam and, in the process, breaking the long-standing record held by its biggest rival, Call of Duty.
According to data from SteamDB, the free open beta reached a peak concurrent player count of 521,079 on Saturday. This figure surpasses the 491,670 peak set by Call of Duty during the launch of Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and Warzone 2.0. The huge influx of players briefly catapulted Battlefield 6 into Steam's most-played games list, trailing only giants like Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, and landing it in the 22nd spot on Steam's all-time chart.
The massive turnout has not gone unnoticed by EA. The publisher took to X to confirm that this is the largest open beta in the franchise's history and even warned players of potential server queue times due to the unprecedented demand.
While a free-to-play beta is always going to attract a large crowd, these numbers are a clear indication that the community is incredibly excited about the game's promised “spiritual successor” direction. The key challenge for EA will be converting this massive beta audience into paying customers when the game launches in October. The long-rumoured free-to-play battle royale component could also play a significant role in the game's long-term success.
For those who missed out on the action this weekend, there's still another chance to jump in, with a second beta weekend scheduled to run from August 14th to 17th. Battlefield 6 is set for a full launch on October 10th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
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KitGuru says: Have you tried Battlefield 6 Open Beta already? What do you think of it?