For both the weekend past and the weekend still to come, gamers worldwide are turning their attention to the latest entry in one of the most popular FPS series of all time, “Battlefield.” Specifically, the upcoming release “Battlefield 6,” which just concluded week one of its historic open beta period.
By all accounts, the first stage of the two-weekend beta was a massive success. In the days leading up to its launch, players were already queuing in the tens of thousands to log in when the servers opened for early access and general access two days later.
When the gates opened on Saturday, queues reached as many as 250,000 players, and that popularity did not slow down right until the servers went offline on Sunday night. The player count on Steam got as high as 521,079 active players, surpassing the peak of the “Battlefield” franchise’s main rival, “Call of Duty.”
Get your Squad into battle this weekend 🤜💥🤛
Here's your Maps & Modes intel drop for the Open Beta 📑#Battlefield6 pic.twitter.com/likYbGWN5w
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) August 9, 2025
“Call of Duty HQ,” the title that Steam players have used to access the last five releases in the series, has a listed peak of 491,670. These figures don’t take console players into account, but research firm Oppenheimer reported that the “Battlefield 6” beta period saw “over 5 million players” take part across all platforms.
The second week of the beta begins on Thursday, August 14 (again, thousands of players are already queuing to enter), and will feature an additional NYC-set map and two game modes not available last week.
When the time comes for full release, “Battlefield” and “Call of Duty” will once again go head to head, with “Battlefield 6” releasing on Friday, October 10 and “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” penned in for a late 2025 release — a rivalry not seen since the legendary synced release of “Battlefield 1” and “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” in late 2016.
We’ll find out more about the next “Call of Duty” title during Gamescom 2025 next week, but the second period of the “Battlefield 6” beta will run from 6pm AEST on Thursday, August 14 to 6pm AEST on Monday, August 18.