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Windows Central

Technology

Brendan Lowry

The Battlefield 6 free trial week has failed to boost its player count — but why? Some thoughts from a daily player and longtime fan

Battlefield 6 Battlefield (Organization) EA SPORTS Battlefield Studios Samsung Steam Black Friday (Topic) Electronic Arts Loaded (Organization) Microsoft

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2025 has brought us many popular new games, but the biggest of them all is Battlefield 6 — Electronic Arts (EA) and Battlefield Studios' new bombastic, combined arms-driven FPS that's taken multiplayer gaming by storm, with only ARC Raiders challenging its mindshare due to its traction on streaming platforms.

Battlefield 6 has posted some earthshattering numbers since its launch in early October, including nearly 750K concurrent players on Steam alone at release and the sale of over 7 million copies during the opening weekend, with countless more flying off digital shelves in the following weeks. More recently, it was revealed to be the best-selling game of the year, and it also made more money in one month than any other game has since 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

In an effort to drive even more players to the shooter, EA and Battlefield Studios kicked off a special free trial on Tuesday this week that allows anyone on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, or PS5 to play a small portion of Battlefield 6's multiplayer content free of charge until the early morning of December 2.

However, a look at Battlefield 6's current SteamDB data reveals that — at least on Steam, which is the only platform with precise public data to review — the free trial has thus far failed to meaningfully move the needle, with the game still hovering at the 200K concurrent players average it's held for the last few weeks.

You'd think a chance to try out the largest new game of the year would bring in thousands of curious players, right? So what gives? Well, speaking as a massive fan of Battlefield 6 itself and a longtime fan of the franchise as a whole, I believe that it's a combination of a few different factors.

Firstly, the content included in the free trial isn't exactly considered to be the best of what Battlefield 6 has to offer. The Siege of Cairo map is a good time, and Season 1's new Eastwood map is awesome, but Blackwell Fields is widely regarded as one of the worst stages in the game due to how heavily skewed it is towards the dominance of vehicles and snipers.

On top of that, while it does include core Battlefield modes like Conquest and Breakthrough, it also has the Call of Duty-esque Team Deathmatch and Season 1's Sabotage mode that pretty much everyone hates. I understand having Team Deathmatch for the sake of offering a small-scale experience, but Battlefield 6's new popular tug-of-war mode, Escalation, should be here instead of Sabotage. And honestly? Just let free trial players access all of multiplayer.

I also suspect that many of the folks who would try out Battlefield 6 have already essentially been doing so by playing Battlefield REDSEC, the free-to-play battle royale that launched within the game in late October. Many of those players may now be trying out the Battlefield 6 multiplayer experience. At the same time, it's free, but platforms track REDSEC and regular Battlefield 6 player counts together, potentially explaining the lack of visible change.

Anecdotally, I'll also say that I haven't seen much advertisement for the free trial online beyond the trailer embedded above and some social media posts, so that marketing might be a factor. You'd think the Algorithm™ would serve me ads about it on YouTube and other platforms if there were any, though, given how much I love the series.

Additionally, it must be acknowledged that this is the week and weekend of Thanksgiving in the US, and that many gamers who might be playing the Battlefield 6 free trial right now are instead going outside (ugh) and being social (ugh) with friends and family members for the holiday. That, or they're frantically shopping for gifts while Black Friday deals are around.

The design of the Blackwell Fields map makes vehicles and snipers extremely difficult to counter, and is thus one of Battlefield 6's least popular stages. (Image credit: Electronic Arts)

All of these things are likely contributing to why the Battlefield 6 free trial hasn't resulted in a visible rise in player counts, with REDSEC's free-to-play availability, the small size and mixed quality of content included, and the holiday buzz all standing out to me as the factors that most likely explain the static performance.

Nothing can be done about the holiday, obviously. Still, I do think Battlefield Studios should have just given free trial players a week to play all of Battlefield 6's multiplayer, rather than just a small portion of it. Restricting them to three maps — one of which is disliked by most — and only offering two well-liked modes that allow Battlefield's large-scale action to shine was a huge mistake.

None of that changes that the full Battlefield 6 experience is one of the best FPS games I've played in years, however, and I wholeheartedly recommend picking the game up. It's $69.99 across Xbox, PC, and PS5 at MSRP, though the Xbox edition is $60.69 at Loaded right now, and the EA App version is, too.

FAQ

What is Battlefield 6?

Battlefield 6 is a first-person shooter from EA and Battlefield Studios. It offers a suite of campaign, community-made Portal custom games, PvP multiplayer, and free-to-play REDSEC battle royale content, and prominently features combined arms engagements between infantry classes, vehicles, and aircraft.

What platforms is Battlefield 6 on?

Battlefield 6 is available to play on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam, EA App, Epic Games), and PS5.

When does the Battlefield 6 free trial week end?

Battlefield 6's ongoing free trial week is scheduled to run until Tuesday, December 2 at 4 a.m. PT / 7 a.m. ET, at which point it will end and the game will no longer be available to try out free of charge.

Is Battlefield 6 on Xbox Game Pass?

No, Battlefield 6 is not available to play through Xbox Game Pass. Since it's not on Microsoft's buffet-style gaming service, you'll have to buy a copy to play it outside of any free trials.