It has been just five days since Battlefield 6 received an international launch and was already enjoyable blockbuster commercial success usually reserved for the industry’s perennial high-seller: the Call of Duty brand. Reports indicate that Electronic Arts’ paid shooter has sold upwards of seven million units globally within a week across all platforms, netting an estimated $350 million in gross revenues. These initial figures point in the direction of a significant win for the publisher, however, continuing to show a market appetite for large-scale military shooters, and positioning the title as one of the most impactful launches in one calendar year.
Sales distribution is significant in that it is a change with regard to the preference of platform purchase. As mentioned, the personal computer market accounts for the majority of copies sold with Steam accounting for 56.7% of copies sold, when compared to the PlayStation 5 (23.7%) and Xbox Series (19.6%). This best commerce performance immediately catapults the game on the UK Sales Charts for the week ending October 11, and easily outscores core EA properties such as EA Sports FC 26. The game would do well enough to be evident on day one when sales crossed $100 million on Steam alone via 1.8 million sold copies.
All this hefty launching was caused by the open beta period of the title. The statistics made a comparison of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta, demonstrating that Battlefield 6 has hugely surpassed competition by its peak simultaneous players, signaling upsurge enthusiasm prior to release. Post-launch engagements have remained high, with the game recording between 2.3 to 2.5 million daily active users on Steam. A highly visible Twitch Drop campaign capitalized on the streaming community to bring peak concurrent viewership for the game to an impressive figure of 865,000, acting as a compelling real-time mechanism to acquire players.
The massive commercial success, however, was also accompanied by a few hiccups. Some users complained of technical gremlins on the first day, mostly arising from EA App incorrectly suggesting that they could not access the game. EA worked very quickly to solve the connectivity issues, rightly compensating affected players not only with in-game boosters but also a free season pass. Player retention will now hinge on the big upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in November. To preemptively manage this competition, EA’s launch of Season 1 of Battlefield 6 is scheduled on October 28, now, as that move is assumed to hold the current player base and avail them fresh content before the main rival enters the all-important window for holiday sales.
