Though Battlefield 6 had an extremely successful launch that saw it becoming the best-selling game of 2025, it's experienced a sharp decline in player count and engagement in the opening months of 2026. On Steam, it's lost nearly 92% of its original peak player count of 747,440 — and sadly, the newly released Season 2 has barely done anything to move the needle.
One of the biggest reasons why Electronic Arts' (EA) new FPS has fallen off as much as it has is because the game has very few truly large maps with lots of space and opportunities for engaging vehicle and aircraft play, and isn't getting new ones quickly. These maps are where the combined arms gameplay of Battlefield shines, but at the moment, the only ones like this are Mirak Valley and the Operation Firestorm remake.
As Season 2 launches with Contaminated — a great map that, while not huge, feels much larger than it is thanks to its verticality — Battlefield Studios has confirmed to players that it's "heard the message very clear" in regards to the desire for big, expansive maps, and says it's prioritizing them moving forward.
"We don't want to spoil too much yet, but we've heard the message very clear. You've seen recently in Battlefield Labs that we started testing Golmud Railway, one of the older Battlefield maps. That is one of the responses [to player feedback] that we can give there, and the rest is for the future," Battlefield 6 seasons producer Philipp Girette told PC Gamer.
The studio notes that development of the upcoming remake of Golmud Railway — a gigantic Battlefield 4 map with the size and design style players are asking for right now — has been made a priority. Unfortunately, it won't launch during Season 2, but hopefully it won't come out long after it ends.
Battlefield Studios says Season 2's maps, Contaminated and Hagental Base (a tight, infantry-only map à la Operation Metro or Operation Locker coming in March), were planned and designed before Battlefield 6 came out. One change made to the former in response to player feedback, though, was the expansion of Contaminated's fly zones, giving helicopter pilots room to maneuver around outside of the map's boundaries.
As someone who's taken to the skies as much as possible on the new map, I can confidently say that was the right call, as it would be impossible to play around anti-air threats without that extra space. Sadly, though, it's unlikely tweaks like this will come to Battlefield 6's existing stages any time soon, as the team is wholly focused on working on upcoming maps.
"For the maps, we try to make changes for the ones that are currently in development. And then we look further ahead, as you said. It takes a really long time to make these maps," Girette explained. "We're somewhat, not limited, but we have to be very targeted in what we do…I think we will definitely take a look at the existing maps, but there's nothing we could announce that is going to happen within Season 2."
Ultimately, it's good news that Battlefield Studios is focusing on developing larger maps for future seasons, and hopefully that means Season 3 will finally start delivering the massive stages Battlefield fans are craving. It is somewhat worrying to hear the developers talk about the time it takes to create new ones, though, given that the current two maps per season cadence doesn't feel like enough.
How do you feel about Battlefield 6 and its maps?
If you're playing Battlefield 6, how do you feel about the game's current selection of maps? Are you happy to hear larger stages are coming? Frustrated about how long we'll have to wait for them? Let me know in the comments.
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