This time exactly one month ago, Star Wars Battlefront 2 — the 2017 Battlefield-style sandbox multiplayer shooter from DICE and Electronic Arts (EA) — went through a massive resurgence as fans celebrated May the 4th, rode the high of the excellence of Andor Season 2, and clamored for a Battlefront 3 sequel. Now, it's blowing up again...and its player counts are skyrocketing even higher than they were before.
As backend SteamDB data shows, Battlefront 2 has climbed from an average of about 10-15,000 concurrent players — where it's been hovering since last month's renaissance — to an impressive 30-35,000 on Valve's PC gaming platform Steam this past weekend, with the game setting a new peak record of 35,892 on Sunday. That's double the numbers and then some.
The reason for this second and larger Battlefront 2 comeback is undoubtedly the colossal 90% off deal EA is running for the shooter as part of its ongoing Summer Sale event. The title's current MSRP on PC is $39.99, but thanks to that amazing discount, it's just $3.99 on Steam and other PC platforms like the EA app and the Epic Games Store. It's also down to just $4.99 on Xbox (unfortunately, it's at its full console price of $19.99 on PlayStation).
Another way you can play is an EA Play membership; notably, these are included with every Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscription.
- DEAL: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 1-month memberships are $13.59 at CDKeys, giving you access to Microsoft's service for a cool discount
In case you're wondering, those are indeed the lowest prices Battlefront 2 has ever been sold for — and with more people playing the game than ever before, there's never been a better time to deploy to the battlefields of a galaxy far, far away. In fact, last month, a "reliable source" reported that a whopping 160K+ players were online across all platforms at peak hours; with current Steam numbers eclipsing the ones from then, I wouldn't be surprised if the total player counts now were higher, too.
Indeed, the amount of hype for the game that's been generated is astounding, and it's absolutely deserved. Battlefront 2 stands tall as one of the most enjoyable arcadey multiplayer shooters you can play, and is also one of the best-looking and sounding games in the industry even eight years after release. From an audiovisual perspective, the way it immersively brings iconic Star Wars battles and locations to life is a feast for the eyes and ears — especially if you've got a nice display and a quality pair of headphones like my beloved $229.99 Alienware Pro Headset.
It had an extremely rough start at launch due to the inclusion of pay-to-win loot boxes at a time when everyone (including government agencies) was cracking down on them. After those got reworked, however, it recovered and became quite popular, with DICE releasing frequent content updates until it stopped developing them to focus on Battlefield 2042 in 2020.
We, uh...know how that worked out, and it's something that a lot of longtime Battlefront fans have been bitter about ever since. Honestly, though? Battlefront 2 was transformed into a truly terrific game before development on it ended, and I'm just happy to see thousands of new players and veterans alike enjoying it again.
I'm hopeful that we'll eventually get a Battlefront 3, though between a report that one was turned down by EA due to licensing costs and the fact that the next Battlefield is in development at DICE (along with three other studios), the chances of it happening seem pretty slim. To quote Han Solo, though, "never tell me the odds" — and even if we never get another sequel, we'll have Battlefront 2 to enjoy for as long as EA keeps the servers on.
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