Farming Simulator has more players than Battlefield 2042 on Steam

Battlefield 2042 was supposed to be a return to glory for a franchise that has found itself bogged down in the trenches in recent years.

While still hugely impressive in terms of technical achievements, it is clear that Battlefield and its developers, DICE, have lost their way. Out of touch with their community and caught in a battle royale-inspired identity crisis, the latest Battlefield release has come to gamers offering something for everyone, yet pleasing nobody.

It's sad to see, especially for those that enjoyed the franchise in its heyday, which I would argue was Battlefield 2, it wouldn't be long after that the game's started appearing on consoles.

But whatever the reasons for the franchise's demise, there is no doubt that this is a very sickly patient indeed, with more evidence emerging over the weekend that points to just how poorly the game is faring.

Because it turns out that Farming Simulator 2022, which was released last week, beat out Battlefield 2042 in sales and concurrent players, at least on Steam.

Farming Simulator 22 was reported to have peaked at 105,636 players, compared to Battlefield 2042's 105,397. And at some point on Sunday, Farming Simulator had twice as many people playing it... I guess it must have been a market day.

Farming Simulator 22 also was the top-selling game on Steam, beating out Battlefield 2042 in second place, Cyberpunk 2077 in third, and Red Dead Redemption 2 in fourth.

Now, these numbers need some caveats. Farming Simulator 22 was released several days after Battlefield 2042, with the latter having a stage early access release but gaming is as much about perception as any industry (just ask someone about No Man's Sky) and in the game of hearts and minds, Battlefield 2042 is being made to look like a chump by a title where you plant corn.

That is not to say Farming Simulator isn't a good game -- far from it, Giants Software has produced eight games in the series with Farming Simulator 19, the last entry, selling well over two million copies -- but with the money and development team behind Battlefield 2042 being what it is, such performance is simply not what is expected.

While it may have been a poor weekend for Battlefield 2042 -- at least relatively -- it was a stellar weekend for Steam as a platform, reaching a record 27,181,165 concurrent players, smashing the 26.9 million set in April of this year.

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Featured image courtesy of Giants Software.