Battlefield 6 is out today and it’s already blowing up on Steam. The multiplayer military shooter is already well on its way to a million concurrents on Steam alone as fans race to witness the franchise’s revival after years of stumbles and collective disappointment. The record-breaking influx initially meant long queues but now some players are facing others issues, including a weird bug that tells them they need to buy and download multiplayer mode they already own to start playing.
Currently in the top-five most played games on Steam, Battlefield is the only game in the top-four that’s paid. A $70 price tag hasn’t stopped it from overtaking Valve’s Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 or the perennial chart-topping battle royale PUBG. Players logging on when the game went live around 11:00 a.m. ET on Friday were immediately greeted by absurd queue positions featuring hundreds of thousands of other players trying to get into the always-online game.
350,000 in the queue for Battlefield 6 already 🤯 pic.twitter.com/O6tPcS7e7R
— Tyler James (@FreakyMusic_) October 10, 2025
Battlefield lead producer David Sirland previously seemed confident that the sequel would be prepared to welcome in the flood of day-one players following months of beta hype and promising feedback. DICE was quick to point out that login queues are part of trying to keep the ramp up process “smooth and stable for everyone.” That didn’t stop fans from jabbing each other with screenshots of their positions on social media and the Battlefield subreddit. Long before anyone has a KDA to brag about in Battlefield 6, fans are turning to queue positions as high score markers of elite status. Can anyone beat 458,400?
Bro….
how doe i play the game now? pic.twitter.com/wMwXmmHGWm— DjKr4m3r Gaming (@djkr4m3r) October 10, 2025
But other players have been facing a strange issue where even after getting into the game they would be asked to install it. “Running into an error with Battlefield 6 that states I need to install multiplayer, and it shows me all the files I need to install,” one wrote on X. “Does anyone have any fixes? I’m afraid I’m going to have to queue again..” Someone else even tried deleting the game, reinstalling everything, and queuing again to try and get in playing. “If it works, please tell me,” another player wrote back.
So far, EA is aware of the problem but doesn’t have advice on the workaround. “We’re aware of an issue preventing players from accessing the game with some receiving an error stating they need to purchase DLC or similar,” it announced around noon on Friday. “Stay tuned for further updates as the team investigates this issue.”
In the meantime, Battlefield 6 seems well on its way to living up to to the initial blitz of player interest some had been predicting. Data firm Ampere Analysis told The Game Business it was forecasting 1.7 million copies pre-ordered on Steam alone. If all of them login within the first 24 hours, the fall blockbuster will be well on its way to being Steam’s most-played game so far this month.
To break into the top-10 all-time concurrent peaks it’ll need to beat Banana‘s 917,000 record. The top record is still held by PUBG at over 3.2 million players simultaneously. Though EA will probably be content with having already edged out its free-to-play giant Apex Legends. No wonder Activision seems so worried about Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 this year. It’s the first time in six years it’s had to go head-to-head with a Battlefield that had a single-player campaign, even if this one has left many critics overwhelmed.