Battlefield 1took gamers back to the trenches of World War 1 in 2016, and gamers are returning in significant numbers to the 6-year-old game on Steam in 2022.Battlefield 1is currently being playedmore on Steam thanany other title in the long-running franchise. The gap between the latest release,Battlefield 2042,andBattlefield 1has approached the point of being historically significant for fans of the franchise.
TheBattlefieldfranchise started 20 years ago withBattlefield 1942allowing a massive, for the time, 64 players into one match on a giant battleground. Since then, EA’s premier shooter franchise has set itself apart from the competition by focusing on large-scale ground battles.Battlefield: Bad CompanyandBattlefield: Hardlineexperimented with smaller match counts designed for better performances on console, but the heart of the franchise remains large-scale combat on PC. Through the 20-year history of the franchise,Battlefieldhas experienced ups and downsin popularity, but the current renewed interest inBattlefield 1stands out as a statistical outlier.
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This weekend,Battlefield 1reached an all-time high concurrent player count of 51,950 players on Steam. The previous high was achieved on Jun 26, 2025, with 43,332 total concurrent players. What makesBattlefield 1’sachievement more impressive is that the latest game in the franchise,Battlefield 2042, only has a total of 5,435 players over the same period. This is not the first timeBattlefield 1has had more players, but it is the first time that the gap has been this close to a 50,000-player difference.
Battlefield 2042launched in 2020, the same yearBattlefield 1was first available on Steam after its original EA Origin release, and was immediately derided by fans and critics for its poor performance. Developer DICE publicly stated that they hadlearned lessons fromBattlefield 2042. While the poor performance of the latest game in the franchise can be partially credited for the successBattlefield 1is currently experiencing, other factors could be influencing the surge in popularity.Battlefield 1is currently on sale for the deeply discounted price of $4.79, which could be enticing more gamers to give it a try. The unique World War 1 setting could also be more interesting to players burned out on so many modern and World War 2-themed shooters, which could explain whyBattlefield 5is not performing as well as its predecessor.
Top Twitch streamerShroud may say thatBattlefield 2042is better thanModern Warfare 2, but the player numbers say otherwise. EA announced late last year that the developer was restructuring theBattlefielddevelopment teams at DICE and would be looking into a shared onlineBattlefielduniverse for future games. Until then,Battlefieldfans are expressing their gaming preferences in historic numbers.
Battlefield 1is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
