EA Sets Unrealistic 100 Million Player Goal for Battlefield 6 Amid Development Chaos

EA sets an ambitious goal of 100 million players for Battlefield 6 – a number that even the developers consider unrealistic. With a budget of over $400 million and considerable development problems, the project is under enormous pressure.

Unrealistic goals for Battlefield 6

Electronic Arts has set a player goal for the upcoming shooter Battlefield 6 that even thinks its own developers is unreachable. According to internal sources, the publisher strives for a player base of 100 million users – a number that would far exceed the success of the series so far. For comparison: Battlefield 2042, the current (mind you are not particularly loved) part of the series, so far only about 22 million players have reached, while the most successful branch Battlefield 1 came to around 30 million players. The development teams put these enormous expectations under massive pressure.

Battlefield 6 is the most expensive project in the series with a budget that supposedly exceeded the $ 400 million mark. EA is apparently based on the successes of competitors such as Call of Duty: Warzone, which reached the 100 million mark after about a year, or Fortnite, which could even record over 200 million players or downloads. EA Studios: Presentation of Battlefield Labs including gameplay

The ambitious goals have led to significant problems in development. How Ars Technica reports, there are massive delays, especially for the single player campaign. It was originally intended to develop this by Ridgeline Games, a studio that had to be rebuilt from scratch. After Ridgeline was closed in February 2024, criterion, dice and motifs take over the work on the campaign – but had to start practically from zero. In the spring of 2025, the single player campaign was the only game mode that had not reached alpha status – a year later than planned. In addition, there are cultural tensions between the European teams of Dice in Sweden and the US leadership level. According to sources, the Swedish developers are rather modest and want to develop the best possible game, the focus is on profitability for American management.

Unexplored project with several studios

Battlefield 6 is an unprecedented project for the series in many ways. In addition to the traditional multiplayer mode and the single player campaign, the game should also contain a free Battle Royale mode to compete with Call of Duty and Fortnite. The Battlefield series started in 2002 with Battlefield in 1942 and quickly established itself as a competitor to other military shooters. The series became particularly well-known for its large multiplayer battles with up to 64 players and the opportunity to control vehicles.

Impending cuts

Most of the sources spoken to ARS Technica assume that some of the planned features or content must be canceled before the game was published. The combination of unrealistic numbers of players, cultural tensions between the teams and the unprecedented size of the project has led to a situation in which a complete release seems unlikely.