In the wake of the Battlefield 6 beta, FPS gamers have been flocking back to Battlefield 2042 in droves, leading to the game leapfrogging Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on the Steam charts. With Battlefield 6 on the horizon, the troubled lifecycle of Battlefield 2042 is winding down. The game was first released in 2021 to an overall poor reception that led DICE to begin a redemption arc, releasing updates, hotfixes, and new seasons of content in the months and years following. The effort did manage to turn sentiment surrounding Battlefield 2042 more positive, but it’s now nearly time for the next entry in EA’s premier military shooter franchise.

After months of internal playtests, there’s been a ton of hype swelling around Battlefield 6 now that the public has had two weekends to go hands-on with the game. Battlefield 6‘s open beta period broke records not just for EA, but for Steam as well, with over half a million concurrent players jumping in to try out the upcoming shooter. The number even trumps Call of Duty‘s all-time concurrent peak on Steam, which is incredibly impressive for an open beta.

Battlefield 2042 Is Crushing Call of Duty on Steam

Even with Battlefield 6 being taken offline until launch in October, the Battlefield hype train hasn’t stopped. SteamCharts shows that FPS fans have begun flocking back to Battlefield 6‘s 2021 predecessor, Battlefield 2042. The game currently has more active players than Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone, and even topped Call of Duty‘s past 24-hour peak with 74,000 players to Call of Duty‘s 70,000.

Aside from the general hype around Battlefield 6, there are more reasons for the 2021 Battlefield entry to suddenly see this huge spike in players. Battlefield 2042‘s farewell event is currently ongoing, which rewards players with Pax Armata-themed skins that can be carried over into Battlefield 6 once it launches. This, combined with the game dropping to just $3 on Steam as part of a promotional sale, has led to this influx of gamers hopping into Battlefield 2042. That said, all this doesn’t necessarily mean more gamers are actively playing Battlefield 2042 than Call of Duty, as the former currently has many AFK XP farming servers that players are undoubtedly taking advantage of to earn the aforementioned Pax Armata Battlefield 6 cosmetics.

While this big player bump is surely a nice farewell for Battlefield 2042, it’s not likely to last for very long. The game’s $3 Steam discount ends on September 2, and the latest battle pass is set to expire on October 7, three days before the release of Battlefield 6. Battlefield 6 is set to launch on October 10 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.