Battlefield 2042 overtakes CoD’s Steam player count for 3 major reasons

Battlefield 2042 has more players on Steam thanCall of Duty, but there are three main reasons why the four-year-old shooter has had such a huge player count jump.

At the time of writing, Call of Duty (which includesBlack Ops 6andWarzone) has 33,000 active Steam players according toSteamCharts, while Battlefield 2042 has 58,000. Over the past 24 hours, CoD peaked at 70,000 and BF 2042 peaked at 74,000.

black ops 6 character and battlefield 2042 character

Battlefield 2042 was slammed at launch by players and critics alike, with its player count taking a steep drop shortly after launch. It hasn’t surpassed 20,000 Steam players this year, but has shot up to 74,000 over the past two days.

Why Battlefield 2042 has more Steam players than CoD

There are three big reasons for this huge spike: Battlefield 2042 has a freeBattle Pass with rewards to earn for Battlefield 6, it’scurrently on sale for under $3, and lots of players are in AFK servers to grind the rewards without actually playing the game.

There are dozens of these AFK farming servers in the Portal mode, letting players idly get XP to complete the free pass and earn their rewards inBattlefield 6. So, while it does have more players logged in, not everyone is actually playing the game.

call of duty player count on steam charts

Of course, some players will have either gone back to the game or are trying it out for the first time because they miss Battlefield 6’s beta, which ended on August 17.

Call of Duty, on the other hand, has just hit its lowest Steam player count ever. The numbers have been dwindling ever since Black Ops 6’s record-breaking launch (aside from a spike for Verdansk’s return in April), with the last 30 days being the lowest they’ve ever been.

battlefield 2042 player count on steamcharts

Huge Battlefield 2042 discount lets fans earn BF6 rewards for under $3

Battlefield 6’s beta has beaten Call of Duty’s all-time Steam player count record

battlefield 6 portal screen with xp farms

Battlefield 6 is biggest Battlefield game ever and it’s not even out yet

Black Ops 6 is nearing the end of its lifecycle ahead ofBlack Ops 7, and there has been growing discontent with the wacky skins in the store and the anti-cheat.

Next Battlefield game aiming for “most realistic destruction effects in the industry”

Steam only makes up a small percentage of CoD’s player base, but as we sawin a report in May, the overall player count is following the same trend as Steam (but the actual numbers are vastly higher).

2025 is the first time Battlefield and Call of Duty are going up against each other since 2021, so we’ll need to see howBattlefield 6andBlack Ops 7fare when they release in October and November, respectively.