Battlefield 1 Beta Becomes Largest EA Beta Of All Time With 13.2m Players

If you thought that maybe the market for first person shooters was beginning to narrow, Electronic Arts and DICE would like a word with you. The two companies announced today that its multiplayer beta for Battlefield 1, which ran for a little over a week, has become the largest beta in EA history, attracting a grand total of 13.2 million players.

That, in case you're wondering, is a pretty incredible amount. Even when compared to the open beta Blizzard held for Overwatch, 2016's other massively hyped shooter, Battlefield 1 edges it out, as Overwatch ended up pulling in 9.7 million players. It would appear that people are fairly excited for the release of Battlefield 1.

Electronic Arts also shared some interesting statistics about the beta, noting that Assault was the most popular class picked, followed by Scout, Support, and then Medic. There were 28.9 million melee kills performed over the course of the beta, and the armored train featured on the map racked up 13 million kills itself. There were 23.8 million road kills in all, and the end of everything, players had racked up 62.2 million kills on horseback.

That players get to ride horses into battle probably shows us why the beta was so popular: Battlefield 1 is setting itself apart from the rest by taking place during World War 1, a setting not often seen in video games, as developers and publishers usually opt to set their FPS either in either World War 2 or the distant future. Of course, widespread beta participation may not necessarily translate into higher sales, but you can bet that EA and DICE are feeling pretty good about Battlefield 1's chances today.