Along with a new update, the developers have enabled a holiday-themed update to playlists, allowing the Rush mode to hang around a bit. The mode will be joined by one big update to the game. That’s the inclusion of a fully supported 64-player match capacity. The update includes the big news, 64-player matches to both Breakdown and Conquest modes. To access 64-player Conquest, and Breakthrough, just head to the game’s All-Out Warfare menu.
It’s pretty clear to see why this update came when it did. The launch of Battlefield 2042 wasn’t very smooth, at all. The playerbase has been shrinking pretty noticeably since launch. The game had more than 100,000 players on Steam since launch, at peak. The new 24-hour peak according to SteamDB is now just above 19,000. That 80%+ drop is a nightmare for any game, but there’s a reason for it. The launch of this shooter was plagued with technical bugs.
And it wasn’t just the bugs. Balance issues were a huge problem. It took a nerf patch focused exclusively on the LCAA Hovercraft to bring things back to some semblance of balance. The adjustments to the weapons on this nightmare machine apply to all land vehicles. DICE cut bullet damage to 13 from 18, and also made damage falloff about 33% more aggressive.
And let’s be honest the 64-player mode being limited-time is kind of a spit in the face. Responses to the announcement are all over the place. Gamers are happy to have higher-capacity matches, but the limited-time mode makes it much less likely to have any impact on player numbers. And frankly, the message being sent to some fans is that the game can’t sustain the player count long enough to offer 64-player matches long-term.
