EA needs to heed their customer's feedback here. Even if the option impacts the ability to fill lobbies faster, then so be it. DICE has filled the gap of empty games by filling it with bots. PC population won't affect crossplay matches as the matchmaking will fill the slots with more players that are from other platforms or with bots. The problem isn't the population, its the matchmaking. Most players won't change their gaming platform just for one title, they are used to what they have. However, it seems like EA want's to push players off the PC platform by delivering a poor quality product and experience. I could go on about graphics rendering for consoles but that's a different topic.
Activeplayer.io updates the player count on Steam, routinely. There is no denying that the all-time peak is a clear sign of PC players not being happy with the product. Yes, I acknowledge that Steam charts are not the end-all, be-all mother of statistics but it shouldn't be excluded when doing calculations on player populations. I won't deny fad-chasing or experience-hope of a newly released game and successful advertise campaigning. EA delivered on bringing in cash to their company with this game.
Even now, only roughly 6-7% of players are playing on PC.
Let's see how well EA did as a distributor of Battlefield 6.
By rudimentary calculations, the units sold to the players, and those current playing (CCU) is a whopping 1.16%. That's 1% of people who bought the game, actually playing it. (Remember, launch statistics.)
As for console players, PlayStation and Xbox data isn't tracked publicly. The industry estimates place the total cross-platform player count at roughly 2.5 to 3 times the PC population during daily peak hours. If we do simple math and round the PC players to 47,000 concurrent players and multiply them by 2.5 to get an idea of what the console player base is, we get approximately 117,500 concurrent players. Lets add the 47,000 from the PC platform back into the total count to give us an estimate of 164,500 concurrent players across all platforms.
We already see the disproportion of the different platforms. Console only crossplay will not suffer as they own the lion's share of the matches and player base. PC players own less than a 1/3 of the player base and will be impacted by PC only when crossplay is disabled.
Some of you will reply "see, PC players need crossplay to fill matches" but that is not the point we are trying to make here. Even if every platform (PC, XBox, PS) all had independent matchmaking exclusive to their platform, you'd still have the same problem with empty matches and bot filled games. Console only crossplay benefits from a simplified platform and input balances. PC players will see some what noticeable increase in wait times or a game will spin up without players and fill with bots until players join through the matchmaking system. The point being made is that PC players should ALSO have the OPTION to disable crossplay. Again, let me make that clear... the OPTION of enabling or disabling crossplay. Just because a PC player WANTS the option doesn't mean its going to ruin the matchmaking for the ENTIRE player population. We'll likely see PC players re-enable crossplay to get faster matches and that's how it should be. The freedom to choose to play with and against other players, on other platforms. EA shouldn't be mandating how we play with each other. Instead, try to deliver on what the community wants. The thing we want the most of all is transparency, clarity and accountability when they get it wrong. There is a litany of problems with the game that the community gets zero transparency on and we have to feel the pain of game changing balances and mechanics that ultimately cause more problems than solve. Resulting in additional loss of trust.
DICE and EA did a fantastic job of delivering on an ad campaign instead of focusing on player expectations and experiences. The glaring 1% player base is enough for EA shareholders wonder wtf just happened. Those shareholders are absolutely wondering what the next installment of the franchise will be if they can't retain more than 1% of the player base from their launch day sales. Seeing the slide with the BF franchise and the other games EA distributes is probably why EA was sold. Rats jumping off a very large sinking ship.
Feel free to @ your favorite CM or dev. I would certainly like to see more official statistics and EA's response on this ever evolving, and growing sentiment from their customers. Ignoring this feedback may prove costly for EA (or the new shareholders) in the near and long term future.
There is no denying that the all-time peak is a clear sign of PC players not being happy with the product.
It really isn't. That dropoff was going to happen regardless. Literally happens to **bleep** near every game.
you sure love defending this game tooth and nail.
to go from nearly 700,000 active players to barely getting 50,000 players in less than a year is not a normal player drop.
Yes player drops happen but not to this degree and it's so funny watching you defend this game tooth and nail day in day out on the forums.
you sure love defending this game tooth and nail.
to go from nearly 700,000 active players to barely getting 50,000 players in less than a year is not a normal player drop.
Yes player drops happen but not to this degree and it's so funny watching you defend this game tooth and nail day in day out on the forums.
Arc Raiders saw the same kind of drop off. The finals saw the same kind of drop off. Games drop off hard these days. Its pretty normal.
I find it more weird how much people complain about good games.
Yet here you are complaining about people complaining that they want to see the game be successful by offering feedback and discussion opportunities. Crossplay option for PC players is a huge talking point for players on both console and pc.
Raansu86 will defend this game if their life depended on it. This troll is in every thread about crossplay and hitreg/dsync/net code thread on here putting blame on the OP. They will find anything to deny just for the sake of denying it if what someone states is true. We need a block feature on the forums so we can ignore these narcissists.
But they won't step foot in the Season 3 is here! We want your feedback! thread because it's too much visibility into their combative personality. I find it pretty interesting that all they pulled out from my analysis is...
There is no denying that the all-time peak is a clear sign of PC players not being happy with the product.
Then the typical pivot to "other games did this" is so tired. Yes, we all see it. We all see drops in player counts for unknown reasons. To compare this game to ARC Raiders is delusional. ARC Raiders currently averages roughly 25,000 to 50,000 concurrent players on SteamDB, a decline of about 85-90% from its historic peak of 481,966 concurrent players hit during its massive launch window in late 2025. SteamDB The game currently retains 5.19% to 10.37% of its peak launch audience during normal hours, jumping up to 14.52% during peak daily activity.
Yet still no real response on why the option to disable crossplay for PC is mentioned, attempting to derail the topic like they do in nearly every post. They are opposed to giving individual control to others and it gets under their skin.
Arc Raiders saw the same kind of drop off. The finals saw the same kind of drop off. Games drop off hard these days. Its pretty normal.
I 100% agree with this statement. That game is NOT Battlefield in no comparison. Compare apples to the sun.
If you spend any time asking Google for the analysis, you will see that ARC Raiders is doing much better on player retention than Battlefield. EA may have sold a ton of copies but the dwindling player base is speaking loudly. DICE needs to get on top of the major, repetitive bugs plaguing the game. Eventually it will be down to the final hold-outs (its okay Raansu86, you can play all you want and however you want) to which they will end support. My guess is around the end of Season 5. If it goes beyond that, I'll be surprised.
Let's see what mid to late October looks like for Battlefield 6 and the drastic measure EA takes to cling to the 1%
Raansu86 will defend this game if their life depended on it. This troll is in every thread about crossplay and hitreg/dsync/net code thread on here putting blame on the OP.
I've given in dept posts about how networking works and how crossplay has nothing to do with desync. You choosing to ignore facts isn't me trolling.
But they won't step foot in the Season 3 is here! We want your feedback! thread because it's too much visibility into their combative personality.
I've posted in that thread.
Yet still no real response on why the option to disable crossplay for PC is mentioned,
Because there's no actual legitimate reason for it.
attempting to derail the topic like they do in nearly every post.
Pointing out realities like player drop off having nothing to do with crossplay isn't derailing a post. It's just something that happens to pretty much every game.
