The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2021
EA launched Battlefield 2042 without a campaign or scoreboard, and lost 96% of its players
The series dropped its campaign and class system for a format players hadn't asked for, and lost 96.5% of its Steam players within months.
Electronic Arts · DICE · 2021-11-19
What happened
EA and DICE launched Battlefield 2042 in November 2021 as a live-service pivot for the franchise, removing the traditional single-player campaign, the class-based loadout system, and in-round voice chat in favor of a smaller number of large-scale multiplayer maps and AI-driven 'Specialist' characters.
The game shipped with widespread technical issues including server instability, missing scoreboards, and bugs that made basic features like squad management unreliable, on top of design changes longtime players had not requested.
Player counts collapsed after launch: Battlefield 2042 lost 96.5% of its Steam player base within months, at points dropping below its own predecessor's numbers. EA publicly called the results 'disappointing' on an earnings call and declined to disclose unit sales.
Why it happened
- The studio cut features long-time fans expected — campaign, classes, scoreboard — without validating the tradeoff with the core playerbase first.
- Launching with known server instability and missing basic UI features undermined the redesigned experience it was betting on.
- EA proceeded with the launch date despite reports the game was in a rough state ahead of release.
- Leadership declined to share sales figures, which read publicly as an admission the numbers wouldn't help the story.
The lesson
Removing features your core audience relies on is itself a launch risk, even before counting the bugs on top of it.
Aftermath
EA committed to a series of post-launch content updates to try to win back players, and the underperformance became a factor in the studio's broader reassessment of the Battlefield franchise's live-service direction for its next entry.
Sources
- Dexerto — Battlefield 2042 sales 'disappointing' as EA doubles down on live service commitment
- GAMINGbible — Battlefield 2042 Sales Were So Disappointing EA Won't Share The Exact Number
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