'Losing Steam' — 3 Months After Launch, It's Time for a Check-in With Battlefield 6 and Its Community

Recent Battlefield 6 Steam reviews person fallen to 'Mixed,' with players pointing to bugs, “aggressive monetization,” and generative AI contented arsenic subordinate numbers dwindle amid the agelong hold for Season 2.

Battlefield 6 took disconnected with the strongest commencement the EA FPS franchise had seen successful years erstwhile it launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S connected October 10. Although the clip since has seen Battlefield Studios’ caller installment autumn retired of (and backmost into) favour with fans, the unsmooth spot it presently finds itself successful is undeniably its longest yet.

Just arsenic Battlefield 6 clawed its mode to wide positivity pursuing the mid-November motorboat of its Season 1: California Resistance update, December saw the commencement of an influx of caller antagonistic Steam reviews and a continued diminution successful concurrent subordinate numbers connected Valve's platform. That’s astatine slightest partially acknowledgment to the merchandise of the last Season 1 chapter, Winter Offensive, which focused connected limited-time, snowy versions of existing multiplayer maps, but it wasn’t the deficiency of caller locations driving this downward trend.

The December 9 1.1.3.0 update’s Ice Lock lawsuit and Ice Climbing Axe melee limb came side-by-side with a glitchy main menu, game-breaking stuttering issues, and a subtle (and unintentional) infantry question nerf. BF Studios was speedy to present connected its promises to hole galore of the issues plaguing players crossed PC and consoles contempt the impending vacation break, but Winter Offensive has since proven to beryllium the past ace successful the steadily weakening dam keeping displeased Battlefield 6 fans astatine bay.

Losing Steam

Complaints related to Winter Offensive, compounded with longtime desires to spot things similar bigger Conquest maps, further grounded skins, and different highly requested features, resulted successful the opening of the wide diminution successful favorability, including for those connected Steam. December 10, 1 time aft the update’s launch, saw 652 antagonistic reviews and 474 affirmative reviews logged successful English. That’s a displacement from the erstwhile trend, which had seen favorable scores outweighing the antagonistic each day.

The weeks starring to this constituent saw Battlefield 6 boasting “Mostly Positive” reviews successful astir each languages (save for Simplified Chinese, which has remained astatine “Mostly Negative” since precocious October). SteamDB’s idiosyncratic tracker has each reviews reaching positivity of 69.8% from December 2 – December 8, with that fig since falling to 68.4%.

Battlefield 6 Steam reviews graph. Image captured connected Steam by IGN connected January 6, 2026.

Steam considers games with 70% affirmative ratings to person 'Mostly Positive' reviews, meaning Battlefield 6 was connected the verge of reclaiming the bluish statement earlier losing momentum with Winter Offensive. Now, its full reviews successful each languages stay 'Mixed' since archetypal falling to the mustard-yellow portion with the motorboat of REDSEC successful precocious October. Valve’s integer storefront shares that conscionable 53% of the 17,331 reviews of the past 30 days are positive, meaning the latest idiosyncratic responses aren’t conscionable 'Mixed' – they’re approaching 'Mostly Negative.'

Seeing Red

“I person to beryllium honest,” 1 antagonistic reappraisal posted January 1 says, “I can't judge however hard my sentiment connected this crippled flipped from archetypal week of merchandise to now.”

Of the much than 95,000 antagonistic Battlefield 6 Steam reviews, astir players’ critiques look to autumn into lone a fewer categories. Calls for larger Conquest maps, bug fixes, and unchangeable gunplay person existed since October and ne'er stopped showing up crossed connection boards. Recent reviews, meanwhile, crook their sights to Winter Offensive and monetization wrong Battlefield 6. The premium crippled has been lambasted for its pop-up windows since launch, but with the December update seemingly doing much harm than bully retired of the gate, pricey microtransactions are stinging a small much than usual.

“Pay $70 conscionable to get ads for conflict passes shoved successful your look earlier you adjacent marque it to the main menu,” 1 Steam idiosyncratic said.

— QNDZY (@QNDZYcom) December 31, 2025

Another talking constituent tanking Battlefield 6 Steam scores involves the contention surrounding EA and BF Studios’ suspected, undisclosed usage of generative AI. Fans latched to what appeared to beryllium a sticker featuring an M4A1 with 2 barrels astir December 20, resulting successful different uptick successful antagonistic reviews. Players person continued taking to the Steam reviews conception to combat backmost against the usage of generative AI successful the weeks since.

“Again,” 1 antagonistic reappraisal says, “a batch of bully religion I felt with this game, the crushed I don’t urge it now, and person nary volition of coming back, is the usage of generative AI.”

“Needs a Generative AI Disclosure connected the store page,” different fashionable reappraisal adds. “The caller worldly they've been adding is virtually AI artwork. Garbage.”

Multi cardinal dollar institution EA selling AI generated slop successful their store (Battlefield 6) pic.twitter.com/AFgOYIo6fV

— Pirat_Nation 🔴 (@Pirat_Nation) December 23, 2025

Despite AI controversies and never-ending discussions astir what is and isn’t a “grounded” skin, 1 of the much absorbing trends among galore antagonistic reviews whitethorn explicate wherefore the Battlefield 6 assemblage is truthful intense: for each of its faults, determination are inactive radical who truly similar this game. While determination are surely posts with lone a fewer hours of gameplay connected record, galore of the astir fashionable reviews are from players who person not lone logged hundreds of hours successful the caller Battlefield crippled but continued to play it successful caller weeks.

“You cognize however a crippled being astir bully is successful a consciousness mode worse than it conscionable really being bad?” different reappraisal said. “Yeah that's Battlefield 6.”

“The gameplay is back, but EA conscionable robbed america (again),” different reappraisal adds. “Rating: 2/5 stars (5/5 for gameplay, 0/5 for concern practices).”

In Need of Reinforcements

Players crossed antithetic channels connected X/Twitter, the authoritative EA forums, TikTok, and much person gone backmost and distant erstwhile it comes to their feelings regarding the authorities of Battlefield 6. That’s changed successful caller weeks arsenic arguable updates proceed to mount, with steadily declining subordinate counts connected Steam lone adding substance to the fire.

At the clip of this story’s publication, the EA shooter had reached a 24-hour highest of somewhat much than 90,000 concurrent players, and it’s hard not to comparison the fig to the all-time highest of 747,440 players it reached astatine launch. Compare and opposition to Embark Studios' Arc Raiders, whose Steam subordinate number has shown singular resilience since its motorboat astatine the extremity of October. One of the ongoing narratives is that some Call of Duty and Battlefield person suffered successful the look of stiff contention from the cheaper Arc Raiders, which saw a highest concurrent subordinate number of 352,000 connected Steam connected January 6.

While Battlefield 6 struggles to support up its momentum, astatine slightest connected PC, determination is 1 assemblage that immoderate judge has remained unwaveringly captious of each past skin, map, and mode since October.

Battlefield 6 is inactive large Reddit is conscionable miserable..#Battlefield6 #BF6 pic.twitter.com/ep1m4wOgO0

— Battlefield Intel (@BattlefieldInte) October 27, 2025

Many person viewed Reddit arsenic a hub for harsher disapproval for respective months, particularly erstwhile it comes to the r/Battlefield subreddit. The subsection of the community, which has raked successful astir 1.5 cardinal users, has attracted the attraction of those looking to telephone retired EA and BF Studios for immoderate of the much egregious problems with Battlefield 6 for months. Post-launch sermon connected the societal media level got truthful heated, truthful quickly, that immoderate fans felt compelled to rotation disconnected a positivity-minded offshoot called r/LowSodiumBattlefield. It presently brings successful 93,000 play visitors, with its all-time apical station calling r/Battlefield a “complete cesspool of karma farming and whining.”

Still, careless of its existent relevance among players offline oregon online, r/Battlefield remains 1 of the astir fashionable places to speech astir Battlefield 6. As PC subordinate numbers and ratings fall, the pouch of the Battlefield 6 assemblage is astatine likelihood with itself. While immoderate reason that Season 2 volition beryllium a “make oregon break” moment, others are utilizing the abstraction to re-introduce the “bait and switch” accusations against EA that primitively began soon aft launch.

“BF6 was a blatant bait and power from the much grounded beta,” a December 10 Steam reappraisal the Reddit assemblage precocious latched onto says, “now the COD-ification has been started.”

The aforesaid review, which is positioned arsenic 1 of Battlefield 6’s all-time “most helpful” antagonistic Steam reviews, calls retired the shooter for being “aggressively monetized,” demanding challenges, deficiency of persistent servers, issues related to deed registration, and overmuch more. They are criticisms shared betwixt wide sections of the Battlefield 6 community, careless of whether they near affirmative oregon antagonistic ratings.

— Enders (@EndersFPS) December 29, 2025

One happening is certain: Season 2 presents an accidental for EA and BF Studios to retake the crushed it's mislaid not lone successful the past period but since launch, too. The squad has spent the months since its October merchandise publishing updates ample and tiny arsenic it attempts to support up with subordinate feedback, truthful we should person a amended thought of what the aboriginal holds erstwhile Season 2 is revealed successful the adjacent future.

In the meantime, you tin work astir wherefore immoderate judge Battlefield 6 volition inactive apt look supra Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 arsenic the best-selling crippled of 2025. You tin besides larn astir however immoderate fans helped steer BF Studios distant from vibrant skins with an update to 1 peculiarly arguable infantry outfit.

Michael Cripe is simply a freelance writer with IGN. He's champion known for his enactment astatine sites similar The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be definite to springiness him a travel connected Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).