Battlefield 6 Beta Crowd Tinkers on Steam While 2042 Count Plays

It appears EA might have a major hit on its hands, as over 9,000 players were logged into the Battlefield 6 open beta on Steam shortly after pre-loads began.

Pre-loading started as early as 8am PT on August 4, giving fans the chance to download the Battlefield 6 open beta ahead of early access, which launches at 1am PT on August 7 (check out IGN’s guide for how to join in).

According to SteamDB data, interest was strong enough for the Battlefield 6 open beta to reach 9,463 concurrent “players”—days before the beta even went live. At the time of writing, the beta had 3,805 active users.

So what are players doing in the open beta? Many are getting a head start by adjusting settings, spending around 30 minutes customizing UI colors and weapon field of view, for instance.

Others are using it to share the excitement with friends. “I’ve logged 6.4 hours in the beta so far,” said Reddit user gruggers1. “Most of that time was spent in the lobby chatting with friends using in-game voice chat.”

Some players have reported encountering frustrating restrictions on PC. Unless Secure Boot is enabled in the BIOS, the Battlefield 6 open beta won’t run, so many are likely troubleshooting that as well.

“It’s great to check whether the game launches, configure all the settings, and get ready for the real action,” added Reddit user rafahuel.

Every Battlefield Game, Ranked

Every Battlefield Game, Ranked

     

As many have noted, the number of people accessing the Battlefield 6 open beta’s menu screen was almost as high as the player count for the last installment, Battlefield 2042, on Steam—an impressive feat. (The Battlefield 6 open beta reached a 24-hour peak of 9,463, compared to 11,245 for 2042).

What does this mean for Battlefield 6? From EA’s standpoint, it signals strong player anticipation. EA has gone all-in on Battlefield 6, raising expectations for its performance. It will be fascinating to see the concurrent player numbers on Steam once the open beta officially begins.

In related news, Battlefield 6 producer Jeremy Chubb revealed that the fan-favorite Battlefield: Bad Company 2 served as a “major inspiration” for the upcoming shooter.