New record: "Star Wars Battlefront 2" experiences renaissance

"Star Wars Battlefront 2" has been dead for five years: in 2020, EA subsidiary DICE distributed the last updates for the online shooter, which had turned the internet against itself with various scandals at its release three years earlier. Now suddenly the whole internet is talking about 'Battlefront 2' again – and a new player record has been set on Steam.

Almost 10,500 people played "Battlefront 2" simultaneously in January 2021. For a long time, this was the record for the online shooter on Steam. On May 23, 2025, it was suddenly surpassed: Player numbers continued to rise until there were suddenly 18,653 players online at the same time on May 26, as figures from the unofficial Steam database SteamDB show. To this day, "Battlefront 2" still has over 17,000 players a day at peak times. And that's without even the slightest update from the developers. How did this happen?

"Fortnite" and "Andor"

The phenomenon can be explained in two ways: on the one hand, the figures need to be put into context. The PC version of "Battlefront 2" was released exclusively on EA's gaming platform Origin in 2017 before switching to Steam in June 2020. By the time player numbers began to be recorded on Steam, the online shooter had probably already had its three best years. It is more than likely that the PC version of "Battlefront 2" had significantly more players in the period after its launch – only on Origin, not Steam.

On the other hand, the current renaissance cannot be ignored. There are several ways to explain it. One is the current "Fortnite" season, which is dedicated to the "Star Wars" universe and may have whetted the appetite of many of the millions of "Fortnite" fans for a real "Star Wars" shooter. The broadcast of the second season of "Andor" on Disney+ is also likely to have played a part: "Andor" is considered by many fans to be the best "Star Wars" series of the streaming era.

And finally, the date plays a role: May 4 is "Star Wars" Day. The celebrations surrounding the 'Star Wars' anniversary give games, films and series an annual boost. A look at the Steam database on SteamDB also shows that the number of players of "Battlefront 2" traditionally skyrockets in May. This year, however, the spike is significantly larger. The coverage of the "Battlefront" renaissance is only fueling interest even further.

"Pride and accomplishment"

The renewed player boom is another chapter in the eventful history of "Battlefront 2": the online shooter is regarded as the game that really kicked off the debate about loot boxes. EA's legendary attempt to defend its monetization ("The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment") became an internet catchphrase and is probably still the worst rated comment in the history of Reddit.

EA finally relented and changed the progression system in the shooter. But the damage had already been done, and "Battlefront 2" was never really able to recover from its negative perception. To this day, there are no signs that EA wants to continue the Battlefront series.

(dahe)