It looks like the additional away we get from the launch of the newest (and probably ultimate) season of Battlefield 2042, the extra the multiplayer shooter proves its greatest days are usually not behind it.
This latest rise in participant curiosity kicked off proper on the launch of Dark Creations, the sport’s sixth season. It was all properly tied to a free weekend on all platforms, and steep reductions all over the place.
All of that was sufficient for Battlefield 2042 to have one among its largest weekends ever, practically two entire years after launch. While many (myself included) had been sceptical that the sport might hold that momentum after the conclusion of free entry, issues solely received higher!
Battlefield 2042 not solely managed to take care of its participant base (on Steam, no less than) after the weekend, it has now formally set a brand new concurrent participant report on Steam.
As seen on SteamDB, a brand new all-time peak concurrent of 107,376 gamers was achieved simply three days in the past, which is greater than its earlier 105,397 peak concurrent, set at launch in November, 2021. It’s not a large leap, nevertheless it’s already approach higher than anybody might’ve anticipated.
All of that’s nicely and good, after all, however my solely difficulty with it’s that a lot of these persons are at the moment spending a variety of their playtime in Redacted, the brand new Season 6 map. As the newest map, Redacted has its personal devoted playlist proper on the Battlefield 2042 homepage. The very first thing you see if you wish to begin taking part in is Redacted, and that is what you are seemingly going to click on on.
Redacted is an infantry-only, close-quarters map. It’s a part of what I prefer to name the Operation Corridor style. It all began, after all, with Operation Metro in Battlefield 3. The recognition of that map was so immense that it was not solely introduced again in Battlefield 4 (and Battlefield 5), it impressed DICE to create Operation Locker – a barely totally different tackle the identical idea.
Battlefield 2042 by no means fairly had its personal meatgrinder, hall map – till the discharge of Redacted. And, I imply, simply have a look at this:
Long-time Battlefield gamers – and by extension, DICE – are all keenly conscious of why these maps are in style. For one factor, they provide probably the most environment friendly method to rapidly grind character ranges, unlocks, and weapon development. It’s all pretty easy: a lot of gamers crammed in several small areas means extra alternatives for fight, which interprets to sooner XP good points.
They additionally handle the wants of some within the Battlefield neighborhood, who’ve one way or the other developed an aversion to the mixed arms fight and large-scale the collection was constructed on. Battlefield 2042 solely obtained six post-launch maps, making it all of the extra disheartening to see one spot be taken by one other Metro/Locker clone.
Oh nicely, no less than folks are spending time with Battlefield 2042, fairly than pointing at it and laughing. I simply want they might see, nicely, what units Battlefield aside from most shooters.
