“Battlefield is back,” but for real this time. Call of Duty has hogged the military shooter spotlight for almost a decade. Not since 2016’s Battlefield 1 has Activision’s enduring juggernaut had real competition, but Battlefield 6 is here to mount a challenge for the throne.
I’ve always enjoyed both series in roughly equal measures, but found myself disillusioned with last year’s Call of Duty Black Ops 6, and the upcoming Black Ops 7 isn’t getting my hype juices flowing. On the other hand, Battlefield 6 impressed me during its beta phase, and now that the full game is here, I’m completely absorbed in its chaos on PS5 Pro.
In fact, this isn’t just the best Battlefield game in almost 10 years, but one of the best first-person shooters you can play on current generation consoles, and right now it’s the clear frontrunner to be my favorite entry in the genre in 2025 (sorry, Doom: The Dark Ages). Here are 3 reasons that Battlefield 6 is the strongest rival that Call of Duty has faced in ages.
Return to traditional classes
2021’s Battlefield 2042 made the unforced error of ditching the series' classic (and much-loved) class system in favour of Operators, which felt like a cynical attempt to cash in on the “hero shooter” craze that spawned following the success of the likes of Overwatch and Valorant.
Fortunately, Battlefield 6 reverses this ill-judged decision and brings back the traditional Battlefield classes. Yes, that means you’re once again picking from Assault, Engineer, Support, or Recon, and it’s a reminder to all developers that when something isn’t broken, you don’t need to try and fix it.
I’m a Support by trade — largely because of my shoddy aim — and it’s been wonderful to again rush around the battlefield with my trusty defibrillators in hand, reviving downed squadmates to get them back into the action pronto. Battlefield should never have switched course, but I’m delighted that 2042’s biggest misstep has been swiftly reversed and the class system restored.
Back to the present day
Speaking of reversing previous mistakes, Battlefield 6 leaps back into the modern-day after the series dabbled with the past (in the World War I set Battlefield 1, and the World War II set Battlefield 5), and the much-criticized future-set Battlefield 2042. I loved Battlefield 1 and liked Battlefield 5, but I’ll admit the series thrives when placed in a current-day setting.
At launch, Battlefield 6 is also tonally consistent, which is a seriously refreshing pitch in a live service space dominated by gaudy collaborations and silly skins. You don’t have to search the internet far to find people decrying Call of Duty’s recent flirtation with the likes of Netflix’s “Squid Game” and even more bizarrely, adult animation series “American Dad.”
Developers Battlefield Studios are promising that Battlefield 6 will bench the zany costumes in favor of a more grounded and authentic approach, and at launch, this mandate has been kept to. I really hope the team sticks to its word on this one. It’s wonderful to play a military shooter in 2025 that doesn’t feature cartoon characters or glow-in-the-dark weapon skins.
Huge scale, but restrained
Battlefield 6 has always offered a sense of scale that no other shooter can match. But Battlefield 2042 went overboard in trying to ramp up this aspect of the series. The player counter was expanded to 128 combatants per game, and maps were supersized to account for the increase in player count. On paper, it sounded great; in practice, it didn’t really work.
I recall numerous sessions of 2042 where I’d spend most of my time aimlessly running around no man’s land, desperately looking for enemies to shoot, and it wasn’t uncommon for these long treks through barren stretches to be eventually curtailed by an unseen sniper.
The latest Battlefield brings the max player count back down to 64 per match, and while the maps are still much larger than any arenas you’ll find in Call of Duty, there’s been enough restraint shown to ensure that players are never far from a firefight. So while the trademark scale is retained, it’s balanced supremely well to ensure that you don’t spend minutes wandering.
In short, Battlefield 6 is a must-play in 2025
Battlefield 6 is the next-gen shooter that I’ve been craving since the launch of the PS5 (and Xbox Series X). It makes up for the numerous errors of its predecessor and re-establishes the series as Call of Duty’s biggest (and maybe only) rival.
Of course, I can’t count out CoD until I’ve sampled Black Ops 7 next month, but I will be shocked if, when the dust settles, Battlefield 6 isn’t the shooter that I’m still playing long into 2026 (and beyond).
To add some balance, I have heard the single-player campaign is a bit of a dud (my colleague, Scott Younker, was not a fan of it in his Battlefield 6 review), but for me, Battlefield is all about the online multiplayer suite, and in this regard, Battlefield 6 is the best the series has offered for years. Calling it “a return to form” is a bit of a cliché, but in this case, the praise is deserved.
