Battlefield 2042 is losing popularity on Xbox while Steam reviews remain negative

Rumored to go free-to-play

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Only two months since it launched,Battlefield 2042appears to be waning in popularity on Xbox.

Initially spotted by Theorry onResetEra, both theXbox OneandXbox Series X|S versions are no longer among thetop 50 most played Xbox gamesin the US.

It is faring slightly better inthe UK, although only the Xbox Series X|S version remains in the chart and is holding the number 44 spot.

Other ongoing titles are proving to be more popular than Battlefield 2042, such as For Honor and DayZ. It’s even losing out toStar Wars Battlefront 2, which studio Dice also developed and stopped updating back in April 2020.

While we may not have player statistics for the Xbox platform, this does further support the idea that Battlefield 2042 is struggling to maintain a player base.

Can free-to-play save it?

Battlefield 2042 has also continued to be unpopular on PC. User reviews on itsSteam pageare overwhelmingly negative to the point where it’s number 14 on the platform’sworst 100 games.

Steam Charts, which tracks player numbers, shows a very significant drop since the game launched in November. It began with an average of 51,299 players and now only has about 9,727 at the time of writing.

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While a drop in player count is expected, it is worryingly drastic in Battlefield 2042’s case. As for why this has happened, common player complaints point to technical issues and the absence of key features from previous games.

EA is no doubt all too eager to fix this. Some suspect that the game will adopt a free-to-play model to attract players, something insiderTom Hendersonhas also suggested in the video below.

Michael is a freelance writer with bylines at the Metro, TechRaptor, and Game Rant. A Computer Games Design and Creative Writing graduate, he’s been passionate about video games since the Game Boy Color, particularly Nintendo games, with Xenoblade Chronicles being his favorite game ever. Despite everything, he’s still a Sonic the Hedgehog fan.

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