The launch day of Battlefield 6 was nothing short of incredible, the game at one point peaking at 747,000 players, which is the most for any EA game in history, and not all that far off from the top 10 of all-time Steam concurrents.

What also just happened is something that many may not realize, that Battlefield 6 also just beat Call of Duty’s all-time Steam record, and did so easily. That was 491,000 in November 2022, and even beats the record for free open betas, which had a 521,000 peak. It’s also now the weekend, and it’s possible that in the next 48 hours, Battlefield 6 beats its own record now that players have more time to play.

While Call of Duty has a more sizable console base, it is certainly the case that Battlefield 6 poses as big of a threat as it ever has to this fall’s installment of the franchise, Black Ops 7.

Early reception to Black Ops 7 in its limited tests has been mixed to positive, but Battlefield 6 has really broken out with most players with its unmatched blockbuster action and destruction that Call of Duty games have never fully emulated. They are, of course, not 1:1 comparative games at all with BF6’s heavy vehicle focus and COD’s low TTK (Black Ops 7’s is insanely low), but regardless, they are the most significant rivals in the modern shooter space.

Battlefield 6 is certainly the kind of hit EA needs right now, and I have no doubt its soon-to-be owners in Saudi Arabia and various Venture Capital firms are thrilled, with the company about to be taken private as part of a $55 billion deal.

It will be interesting to see if that 747,000 concurrent haul is as high as the game gets, or if we’re about to see it surpass that over the course of the weekend. Interestingly, it is not the highest concurrent playercount of 2025, where that honor goes to Monster Hunter Wilds, which peaked at 1.38 million at launch, making it the fifth highest in the history of the site. And yet it’s a game that has largely been overlooked in the wake of so many excellent releases this year, and fan anger over its post-launch support.

While it’s unlikely that Battlefield 6 will be in GOTY contention among these other releases, it may end up being one of the biggest success stories of the year. And it seems to deserve it.

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