Battlefield 6 Devs Working on ‘Substantial’ Increase in Server Capacity as Open Beta Launches to Huge Concurrents and Equally Huge Queues

Battlefield 6 developer DICE has said it’s working on a “substantial” increase in server capacity for the Battlefield 6 Open Beta, after the early access launch was met with huge Steam concurrents and equally huge queues.

At time of this article’s publication, the Battlefield 6 open beta had over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, making it the third most-played game on Valve’s platform behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. We don’t have concurrent player figures from Sony or Microsoft, so the open beta’s true concurrent figure will be much higher.

But not all those players are actually playing. Those with early access were met with huge queues (we’ve seen 250,000 in screenshots posted to social media) as the servers hit max capacity. In response, DICE issued a statement to say it was working to improve matters:

“The team is now working on a substantial increase in server capacity, which will reduce your time in the queue,” DICE said. “Thank you for your continued patience as we work to get as many of you into the game as soon as possible.

“We’re looking forward to seeing you experience Battlefield 6, and we appreciate your patience!”

That statement followed a message in which DICE explained why it was using queues in the first place.

“We will use queues to protect the player experience but expect this impact to be minimal,” DICE insisted.

“You may encounter this during high peak moments, such as the start of servers going live. The team is working constantly to reduce any queue that takes place.”

https://twitter.com/BFBulletin/status/1953377379180593285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The suggestion here is that the open beta is peaking now as the early access kicks off, but the queues will ease. Given the open beta has gone live in early access form ahead of the U.S. waking up, it seems likely the player count will grow in the coming hours, and again when the open beta goes live for all this weekend.

We’ve got plenty more on Battlefield 6, including how it requires PC gamers to enable Secure Boot, how it was inspired by the much-loved Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and much more.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.