Re: Steamcharts interpretation...
Well you are right when you say that nobody knows the true numbers (except EA/DICE).
Nonetheless the steam numbers offer a very good indication on what is going on. Despite the fact, that Battlefield is an Origin game Steam is still the biggest gaming platform on PC - so a lot of people have probably also bought it there. When it launched 100.000 players played it via Steam. Now fewer than 10.000 players are left. For a still quite new title this decline is horrid.
Also there are other hints indicating that the player numbers are bad. Recently a cheat seller discontinued their support for 2042 because not enough people care any more. And that is not because people are suddenly willing to play fair and legit but rather because there are so few players that there is not enough demand for it.
Another indicator for me personally is my friends list. When 2042 launched it was played by like 20-30 people from my friends list on regular basis. In the meantime almost no one plays it any more - most went back to older titles. And those who still play it, reduced their playtime significantly.
So despite the unknown total player numbers there is a lot of proof that Battlefield 2042 is doing very bad at player retention. I mean DICE/EA could also be more transparent in those regards but I guess there is some good reason why they are not. If your game succeeded you would be willing to show the world your player numbers. But if it is not you try to hide them.
