How many copies did Battlefield sell? — 2024 statistics

The Battlefield series has sold over 90 million copies across all of its games.

(Sources: VG Chartz, KitGuru, The Game Fanatics, IGN)

• Battlefield 1942 sold 3 million copies.
• Battlefield Vietnam sold 1.36 million copies.
• Battlefield 2 sold 2.25 million copies.
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat sold 1.64 million copies.
• Battlefield: Bad Company sold 2.3 million copies.
• Battlefield 1943 sold 1.5 million copies.
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sold 9 million copies.
• Battlefield 3 sold 15 million copies.
• Battlefield V sold 7.3 million copies.
• Battlefield 1 has over 21 million players.
• Battlefield 2042 sold over 4 million copies in its first week.

Although we’re not currently talking about the Call of Duty series, it is important to note the contrast between the total copies sold for both series. This is so we can fully understand the competitive nature of the gaming industry and how rivalries like this work. Battlefield has sold about 80 million units while Call of Duty has sold 400 million, and that does not diminish the quality of Battlefield in any way. The series is fantastic and you should play it if you haven’t already.

Battlefield 1 had nearly 4 million daily users in 2019.

(Source: MP1ST)

• Battlefield 4 had approximately 2 million daily players in the same period.
• This was after the release of Battlefield V, which underperformed in sales.
• The publisher stated that Battlefield V was in for the long haul, which he justified with the player counts for Battlefield 1 and 4.
• Battlefield V was the largest Battlefield game after the release of its Season 2 content.

Battlefield 1 came out in 2016 and it was a revolutionary game because it so accurately portrayed the chaos and panic that sets in when you have to fight your way through the trenches in the First World War. Its graphics are excellent and the gameplay is immersive as well, so it is no wonder that the game still had a very healthy player base three years after its release.

Battlefield 2 drove DICE to strong profits in Q2 2005.

(Source: Games Industry)

• The company reported earnings of $7.6 million.
• This was a 29% increase in profit compared to 2004.
• After financial items, the profit came down to $3 million.

This was a moment in the history of the Battlefield series that signified that it was going strong despite its fierce competition in the Call of Duty series. In 2005, Battlefield was still starting out and establishing itself in the competitive side of the gaming industry, and everything went up from there.

Battlefield 3 sold 5 million copies in its first week.

(Source: Phys)

• This made Battlefield 3 EA’s fastest-selling video game ever.
• The game noted excellent playtime and user engagement, which boded well for the franchise moving forward.
• The success of Battlefield 3 cemented Battlefield as a leading entertainment brand.
• The game generated over $300 million in revenue for this period.

This is by far one of the biggest launches in Battlefield history as this was the first Battlefield game to be released on the newest Frostbite 2 engine (at the time). It featured some of the best multiplayer gameplay available at the time and was a revolutionary game in many respects.

The Battlefield series is struggling to keep up with Call of Duty.

(Source: IGN)

• Sony has stated that Battlefield is struggling to keep up with Call of Duty because the latter is not replicable.
• As of 2021, the Call of Duty series sold over 400 million copies, while Battlefield sold only 88.7 million.
• While Battlefield 2042 had a rocky start, Call of Duty had its biggest opening weekend in franchise history with Modern Warfare 2.

We’ve already touched upon this subject earlier, but it’s just so important to have a realistic outlook on the rivalry between Call of Duty and Battlefield and to understand that Battlefield will never catch up. Objectively, the Battlefield games are awesome and a joy to play for anyone looking for a good FPS experience, but since Call of Duty is so entrenched in the industry and is known much more worldwide, the chances of Battlefield catching up to Call of Duty’s monstrous number of sales are fairly slim.

Battlefield 3 had a $100 million ad budget.

(Source: Attack of the Fanboy)

• Battlefield 3 was the first game to be made in Frostbite Engine 2.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops had $400 million in revenue on its first day in 2010, so Battlefield 3 was an important competitor.
• A CEO said that the games would clash and it would be legendary in the gaming industry.
• They were certain that they had the superior game.

The hype surrounding Battlefield 3 was justified as the game had a heavy ad campaign that made it known to the entire gaming industry that EA was publishing something for the ages. When you take into consideration how the game performed in sales initially, it is fair to assume that the massive ad campaign was successful.

Battlefield 1 players invested 59 million hours into the game in its first week.

(Source: GameRant. WCCF Tech)

• 9 million hours were spent in operations.
• 32 million battle packs were earned.
• 1.6 million Behemoths were deployed.
• The most melee kills were achieved with the Scout Knife.
• 123,083 horses were killed by sentries.
• Conquer Hell was the most popular operation.
• Horses killed 5.8 million players.
• Tanks killed 5.5 million players.
• Ground units killed 1.6 million players.
• Planes killed 330,477 players.
• 842,426 pigeons were sent in War Pigeons Mode.
• The average number of weather changes per game was 2.
• This was the biggest beta in EA’s history.

The next three lines of stats are meant to display some of the milestones that Battlefield players have crossed across three games, both in their first week and in the betas for two games. Right off the bat, we can see that millions of players got involved in Battlefield as the games were announced and sunk hundreds of hours into playing their favorite game, which is always a good thing to see.

47 billion shots were fired during the Battlefield 3 open beta.

(Source: Visual.ly)

• 8.1 million players participated in the beta.
• 1.5 billion kills were registered.
• 19 million players died to another player’s bladed weapon.
• The longest recorded headshot was 635.6 meters.
• 21 million MCOM stations were destroyed.
• The game had 2 million preorders.

This is the same as above but it’s also important to note that the game had two million preorders, suggesting that players were quite eager to start playing.

Battlefield Hardline’s players grabbed $9 trillion worth of loot in the game’s beta.

(Source: GameSpot)

• 12.8 million vehicles were destroyed.
• That equals $375 trillion in damages.
• 1.6 million heist break-ins were initiated.
• The heists had a 50% success rate.
• 332,091 police interrogations were conducted.

There isn’t as much information for Hardline as there is for other games in the series, but we still added this for some perspective.

EA lost $300 million due to the Battlefield V delay.

(Source: Weplay Esports)

• EA lowered its profit forecast for the 2018 fiscal year from $5.5 billion to $5.2 billion.
• Publisher shares fell by 10% for this time.
• Some have claimed that the delay was beneficial for the longevity of the game.
• Despite the relatively high fall in profits, EA did not suffer too much and made back the difference quickly.

Battlefield V was supposed to be released in October 2018, but it ended up being delayed by one month, which cost EA over $300 million in the end. While this was surely not a massive loss for EA as it is a very successful company, it’s still a large dent in the initial performance of Battlefield V and was a contributor to the game’s underperforming.

Battlefield Heroes hit 10 million players before being shut down in 2015.

(Source: PCGamesN)

• Battlefield Heroes was a low-spec, free-to-play spinoff game in the Battlefield franchise.
• The game steadily grew over the years until it eventually reached 10 million players in 2012.
• The reason for the game being shut down was a fall in popularity and old age.
• Some fans have expressed their disappointment with the decision, while others agreed with EA on the state of the game.
• Aside from Battlefield Heroes, EA also shut down Battlefield Play4Free, Need for Speed World, and FIFA World.

Some of you might not have known that Battlefield also released a mobile game called Battlefield Heroes which was an excellent rendition of Battlefield gameplay scaled down to a low-spec version that everyone could enjoy. This was a great move by EA because many people want to play Battlefield, and while Heroes is far from an accurate Battlefield experience, it might just be what some fans need.

60,000 Battlefield 2042 players signed a petition asking for their money back.

(Source: IGN, Metro)

• The petition was created in response to the waves of criticism for Battlefield 2042 as well as its lack of features.
• It also requested that EA extends the refunds past Steam and to consoles.
• The petition was adamant about the refunds, stating that the game was a mockery and disrespectful to the loyal fans of the franchise.
• EA has admitted that Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations, and stated that it would look to push updates to the game to improve it.
• Despite the controversy surrounding it, Battlefield 2042 was the second-biggest launch in Battlefield history, after Battlefield 3.

Now we get to some of the controversy surrounding Battlefield 2042. The game’s release was better than Battlefield V’s, but the ensuing criticism would spell the end of Battlefield 2042’s reputation as a vast majority of players were not satisfied with the game to any extent. The game has a general rating of 1.8 when you search it up, and a 5/10 on Steam, with generally weak reviews. The petition was something that no one expected, but a lot of people jumped on it, prompting EA to respond and eventually push updates to the game.

To sum up

And there you have it, all of the details, both good and bad surrounding the Battlefield franchise at your fingertips. As you can see, the Battlefield series has been around for many years and has established itself as one of the titans of the gaming industry and one of the best FPS series of all time. It has amassed millions of sales and billions of dollars worth of revenue, not to mention the respect of the player base that follows the games whenever they come out. That is all we have to say about Battlefield, so we hope that you have enjoyed everything we have had to say here and that you have learned something new!