Battlefield 6’s open beta is already making history. Over its first weekend, the beta peaked at 521,079 concurrent players on Steam, setting a new franchise record and shattering Call of Duty’s all-time platform peak of 491,670. That surge didn’t just put Battlefield 6 on top of its first-person shooter rivals—it landed it on the 18th spot of Steam’s Top 20 most-played games of all time.
It’s a massive leap from the series’ recent past. Compared to the Battlefield 2042 beta, Battlefield 6’s beta debut more than doubled concurrent player numbers, and it even tripled the peak of 2042’s full launch. For a franchise that’s been fighting to regain its footing, the message is clear: the hype is real, and players are showing up.
That popularity came at a cost. Many players spent the opening hours staring at server queues—some for more than half an hour—while EA scrambled to scale capacity. There was also a brief hiccup in the publisher’s authentication services, affecting both cross-platform logins and Twitch reward integrations. DICE moved quickly to shore up stability, and by day two, matches were easier to jump into. Some cheaters also managed to bypass the new Javelin anti-cheat system, although most seem to have been caught by the net.
If you missed out, the good news is that a second open beta weekend is coming August 14–17, with the same mix of large-scale Conquest and Breakthrough battles, smaller Domination skirmishes, and vehicle-heavy maps like Liberation Peak. Also expect new game modes like Rush and Squad Deathmatch this weekend.
Whether Battlefield 6 can maintain its momentum past launch remains to be seen, but with these early numbers—and Call of Duty dethroned—it’s already cemented its place as one of the year’s biggest multiplayer events.
