Battlefield 1 is going to sell almost twice as many units as both Battlefield Hardline and Star Wars Battlefront when it hits the shelves in late October. Well, that’s if the numbers currently wrapped up in its beta test are anything to go by.
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According to P-Stats Network, it’s estimated a total of 681,000 people around the globe are currently tapping into the Battlefield 1 beta test, with 43 percent of them playing on PS4, 34 percent on Xbox One and 23 percent on the old, trusty PC.
That compares favourably with the numbers who took on the Star Wars: Battlefront beta, which amassed 374,000 players at its peak, according to P-Stats Network. For the record, at the last count back in May, Star Wars Battlefront sales topped 14 million in its first six months on sale.
According to our calculations (i.e, my iPhone’s calculator app), that means if every one beta player translates into roughly 37 players of the real game come release – as was the case with Battlefront – we could expect to see Battlefield 1 sales top 25 million within six months of launch. Hmm, that doesn’t seem very likely, does it? Math be damned.
Either way, with peak players of the beta of Battlefield 1‘s predecessor, Hardline, having come in at 387,000, the indicators are DICE’s latest is building a healthy amount of hype as it looks to take on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare this Christmas.
Indeed, thanks to handy NeoGAF poster RoKKeR, we also know that the beta is currently the third most played game on Steam, coming in behind Dota 2 and Counter-Stike: Global Offensive.
As well as ramping up interest, beta tests do also help iron out bugs, with some Reddit users complaining weather effects are currently handled client side rather than server side. That means while you might be contending with a sandstorm mid-battle, your rivals could be taking pops at you in bright, clear skies. Not especially fair.
Interestingly, Activision has already revealed that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s beta test will launch first on PS4 before making the leap to Xbox One. There’s to be no test on PC, however, with console players needing to lay down a pre-order for the game to unlock it. Boo, hiss, etc.