Battlefield 6 Open Beta Achieves Record-Breaking Popularity on Steam

The Battlefield 6 Open Beta has made history as the most played game in the series on Steam, with a staggering peak concurrent player count of 521,079 players during its inaugural weekend. The beta, which took place from August 9 to August 10, allowed players with early access codes to experience the upcoming installment in EA's esteemed FPS series before its official release on October 10, 2025. On August 9, the open beta surpassed all expectations, reaching a peak concurrent player count of 521,079, thereby earning its spot as the 18th most popular Steam game by all-time peak player count, surpassing Call of Duty in the process. Former Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra had predicted this outcome in an X post on August 8, stating that this year's Battlefield would outperform Call of Duty, which he described as a 'mess.' Ybarra further noted that the success of Battlefield would push Call of Duty to improve, resulting in better FPS games for players. EA has also broken its own record, with the Battlefield 6 Open Beta achieving the highest concurrent player count of any Battlefield game on Steam, quadrupling the peak count of 107,376 players achieved by Battlefield 2042 nearly two years ago. However, it is essential to consider that EA had withdrawn its games, including the Battlefield series, from Steam between 2011 and 2020, opting to make them available on the EA App instead. In 2020, EA began reintroducing its games to Valve's storefront, but this period of absence means that while the concurrent player count of 2021's Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield 6 Open Beta can be compared, the Steam launch numbers of the recent beta cannot be directly compared to those of earlier entries, such as Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5. EA acknowledged the open beta's massive success in an X post on August 9, stating, 'This is Battlefield's biggest Open Beta ever,' as the player count surpassed 400,000 concurrent players. The company assured players that it was working to ensure a smooth and fair experience, appreciating their patience as they waited for their turn to play.