Battlefield 6 continues to struggle to retain players on Steam, as the best-selling game of last year has officially been beaten by Delta Force, a 2025 first-person shooter with mixed reviews on the platform. Although the launch of Battlefield 6 saw the latest entry in the series soar to more than 747,000 concurrent players on Steam, its retention levels have been extremely poor. So much so that it has dropped to fewer players than Delta Force.
After the disastrous launch of Battlefield 2042 in 2021, EA and Battlefield Studios were forced to go back to the drawing board and return the series to its roots. After four years of anticipation, the franchise returned with a bang, as Battlefield 6 managed to dethrone the titan of the first-person shooter genre, Call of Duty, and become the best-selling game of the year. While console figures were unknown, Battlefield 6 blew up on Steam, peaking at more than 747,000 concurrent players at launch. Initially, it looked like Battlefield fans were in for a treat, but post-launch support and some serious competition from the likes of ARC Raiders and Black Ops 7 have seen EA’s shooter struggle to retain players.
All Soldier Cosmetics in Battlefield 6 Season 2
Here’s a gallery of all operator skins from Battlefield 6’s Season 2 battle pass and store.
Delta Force Overtakes Battlefield 6 In Concurrent Steam Players
In the weeks and months after its release, Battlefield 6‘s player count on Steam has dwindled. As of earlier this year, the shooter had lost 89% of its player base on the platform, marking a worrying trend for the remainder of Battlefield 6‘s life cycle. Despite the studio’s best efforts with continued content updates, fans don’t appear to be flocking back to the title. As spotted by Twitter user Task Force News, Battlefield 6‘s Steam player count recently dropped so low that Delta Force had more active Steam users. Battlefield 6 had just over 45,000 concurrent players on the platform, while Delta Force had over 48,000.
Further inspection via SteamDB shows that this has actually become a regular occurrence for Delta Force, as the shooter reaches around 160,000 concurrent players at peak hours each day, while Battlefield 6 averages around 60,000. It is, however, worth noting that Delta Force is a free-to-play title, whereas Battlefield 6 is a premium, AAA release. Still, for the best-selling game of 2025 and one of gaming’s biggest franchises, it’s surprising to see it being beaten so easily by a more niche shooter with “mixed” reviews. ARC Raiders, for example, is another paid release (albeit only $40), but still manages to peak at more than 200,000 concurrent Steam players every day.
Earlier this week, a new report revealed that publisher EA had laid off numerous developers across Battlefield Studios, which consists of Criterion, DICE, Ripple Effect, and Motive. Despite having the best-selling title of 2025, EA said that the layoffs were part of a realignment across its studios. Support for Battlefield 6 will continue as all impacted studios remain fully operational, as the publisher said the changes are to “better align” its teams around what matters most to the community. EA noted how the Battlefield franchise remains one of its biggest priorities and that it will continue to take on board player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs.
While support for the latest Battlefield title will continue, the teams involved may need to step up their game if they want players to return. Fans were left massively disappointed by the Season 2 roadmap for Battlefield 6, as the community criticized the lack of content included in the update, especially after it was delayed by an entire month. While Black Ops 7 continues to knock it out of the park with post-launch support, with its first two seasons including tons of new content, the same cannot be said for Battlefield 6. Season 2 launched with just one new map, and while it was praised by players, many believe it simply isn’t enough.
- Released
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October 10, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
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Battlefield Studios
