X360 Bad Company 2 crowd is biggest

By Robert Purchese Published 8 March, 2010

But PC was leading for a while.

According to DICE, the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has the most players at the moment.

PC players had initially arrived online in larger quantities than on either console, but that's no longer the case.

"During peak US hours the Xbox 360 dominates the player numbers. When that post [the one claiming PC numbers were greater] was made it was the Europeans playing and pushed the PC numbers higher," wrote DICE staffer Bazajaytee on the EA forum.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has topped the UK All-Formats chart following its release last Friday.

Catch up with our 9/10 review of DICE's thunderous shooter to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SAMagic #1 2 years ago

    Have the server issues been fixed yet? I couldn't get onto any PC ones yesterday, I kept getting errors about my network connection and a failure to connect to the EA server. If I understand some forum posts correctly it was due to a new Punkbuster update which none of the servers applied.

    Good for a launch weekend!

  • jonbwfc #2 2 years ago

    Remind me again, why does this matter?

  • Razzajazz #3 2 years ago

    Loving this game, but still having problems with connections, and still no veteran status yet. Please sort it out DICE, I need to play more! :)

  • matrim83 #4 2 years ago

    @jonbwfc Because if the platform you are playing on is the largest, you can (using a Yahtzee phrase here) level up your internet cocks.

    First game I double dipped on in years so I level up regardless of whichever side wins. :p
    Edited by 2 at 08/03/10 @ 11:44

  • Shikasama #5 2 years ago

    Remind me again, why does this matter?

    I imagine it matters an awful lot to Sony!

  • mcmonkeyplc #6 2 years ago

    Sony crywank?

  • davisorle #7 2 years ago

    Cause games with low online population is more likely to die sooner= less time value.

  • NewbieZilla #8 2 years ago

    "Remind me again, why does this matter?"

    You clicked into it, didn't you? Writing articles that get us to click into them is the aim of the writers here. Mission successful. Now, remind me. Why did you write that, and why did I write this? For whatever arbitrary reason that applies, I suppose.

  • sfp_noodle #9 2 years ago

    isnt this this case with pretty much every multiformat title?...

  • tiny_Eggy #10 2 years ago

    PC account servers were down for hours yesterday. :(

    Sorry if I don't really feel bad for Playstation owners, they have had by far the best games this year.

  • Eraysor #11 2 years ago

    PC servers are still screwed thanks to lovely Punkbuster kicking everyone all the time.

  • Vlad27145 #12 2 years ago

    Yeah, but still, all it says is that Europeans prefer PCs and US folk the 360. And I suppose that if the Japanese cared about an online shooter, during their time zone the PS3 would have got the highest numbers. Not really shocking news.

  • feistycheese #13 2 years ago

    Not exactly surprising is it, that at peak US hours a popular FPS is most played online via Xbox. Im pretty sure that the 360 is the dominant console in the US, so why should it be anything different?

    Im pretty sure if you could compile the figures via world region, results would be different eg. Europe is PC, Japan is PS3.

    Must be a slow news day.

    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 12:01

  • feistycheese #14 2 years ago

    Darn! Vlad got there before me

  • JediMasterMalik #15 2 years ago

    Online shooter does best on the 360? I'd never have guessed.

  • ChaK #16 2 years ago

    fact : europeans have taste

  • chrisola #17 2 years ago

    couldn't get online on my 360 on Saturday or Sunday night, it just froze on the connecting to EA screen when i searched for a quick game....ah well it was an excuse to start single player at least!

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    "We didn't expect people to actually buy our game, let alone try to play it!" bawled an EA spokesperson as another bank of servers exploded behind him. "Why did we ship out so many copies?"

  • Deckard1 #19 2 years ago

    "Sorry if I don't really feel bad for Playstation owners, they have had by far the best games this year."

    Erm what would that be? I'm pretty sure Mass Effect 2 is the best game to be released this year so far.

  • captainrentboy #20 2 years ago

    I had every intention of giving the online mulitiplayer side of Battlefield 2 a thorough seeing to on Saturday night, a load of us in work planned it and everything. My fiancee had even gone out with her girlie chums for the night, leaving me with some guilt free 360 Live time :)... Do you think I could get a single bloody online game up and running? Could I fuck. Good job EA!
    It wasn't wasted though, I brushed up on my Halo skillz instead (I'm really really shit, just like I remembered), prepare for the Reach Beta and what not.
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 12:27

  • neems #21 2 years ago

    After about half nine last night I managed to get in, had a massive session with a couple of mates and one or two EGers (PC version). Always make sure you filter for ranked servers, which guarentees it is running PB. Most of the PB servers have been updated now, but for some reason if you try to play on a non PB server, you get booted by PB. Strange. Also, I would like to type 'PB' again. I'm not sure if that one counts though.

    PB

    There.


    @Deckard - presumably he means last year, or perhaps over the last year. PS3 has had some pretty tasty stuff. Sadly, I don't include Heavy Rain in that.

    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 12:34

  • welshben23 #22 2 years ago

    LOL @ Deckard1. No, Mass Effect 2 is not the best game released this year so far. It was very good but not the best game IMHO.

  • neems #23 2 years ago

    Well, obviously 'best game' is always debatable, but there isn't a lot of competition for the year so far. Mass Effect 2, Call of Pripyat (don't laugh, it's awesome), Heavy Rain (not a huge fan myself, but a lot of people love it), um, MAG? FF13 I suppose, but can you count it? Not really out yet.

    D'oh! Forgot Bad Company 2.
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 12:38

  • miiiguel #24 2 years ago

    fact : europeans have taste

    Why you say that? it's the same game, isn't it?

  • legendmir #25 2 years ago

    could these figures be influenced by the fact that.. you know.. loads of PC players cant even god damn sign in because ea havnt put enough infrastructure in place

  • NewbieZilla #26 2 years ago

    "LOL @ Deckard1. No, Mass Effect 2 is not the best game released this year so far. It was very good but not the best game IMHO."

    Great to see your honest opinion means that another person can not have an honest opinion and the fact someone has the ire to have their own honest opinion is of such amusement to you.

  • lordofthedunce #27 2 years ago

    ^^

    yeah, and then failed to suggest what was the best game, in their opinion.

  • makeamazing #28 2 years ago

    Now people are arguing what game has the most number of players over a weekend... fanboyLOL.

    I did get the chance to free rent it the other day, unfortunately i didnt get the time to play it... Ive heard some good things and bad things about it. Is it online only, is there a SP part to it?
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 13:04

  • thesombrerokid #29 2 years ago

    the PC is an open platform, that's one reason why it matters.

  • BobsUncle #30 2 years ago

    @legendmir

    360 is having the same problem though, I couldn't get a game at 6pm last night, and then they went down again around 9.

  • BobsUncle #31 2 years ago

    @makeamazing

    There is a single player campaign, which is worth playing just for the awesome audio and the funny banter between the squad.

    It's short though, I finished it sunday morning after starting saturday afternoon/early evening.

  • Joco84 #32 2 years ago

    Still can't decide whether to get this.... loved the demo, but don't want the online to be another MW2 - don't enjoy that in the slightest.

    Do the upgrades you get alter the gameplay as much as the mods in MW2?

  • mcmonkeyplc #33 2 years ago

    The only thing this has in common with MW2 is that it's set in modern times and you shoot people.

    MW2 does not have vehicles you can pilot/drive.

  • Agent_Orange #34 2 years ago

    If you have trouble getting on BC 2 Xbox 360 try viewing your stats a few times seemed to work for a mate of mine, though I only had a couple of non connection problems. At one point I did lose all unlocks but that corrected itself halfway through the game. Spooky!

  • LazyNinjaUk #35 2 years ago

    I've only had it for a couple of days, but I already decided this game was great when I was sitting in a crumbled down house, bullets cracking through the air, smoke pluming from ruins all around, taking potshots at the opposing team with my XM8.

    Having killed about 10 people in all, I retreated deep into the forest and watched as the whole opposing team stormed my dilapidated hideout thinking there was at least a squad in there, when it was just me. Good times. :)

  • AphoticCosmos #36 2 years ago

    The PC community will have more staying power though. On the 360 - every shooter that isn't Gears of War, Halo or Call of Duty will often quickly slide into oblivion. BC2 will probably last substantially longer than the average shooter, but nowhere near as long as it will on the PC.

    Until/unless the rumours about Battlefield 3 are true and the PC crowd ditches it for BF3 this time in 2011/2012.

    Regardless of which platform you play it on, it is a truly awesome game. Nothing beats being part of a full-on advance in the Atacama Desert with choppers, rockets and missiles roaring overhead, and tanks at your side ;)
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 18:54

  • arcam #37 2 years ago

    Until/unless the rumours about Battlefield 3 are true and the PC crowd ditches it for BF3 this time in 2011/2012.

    Rumours? BF3 is coming. Despite generally agreeing with your point about increased longevity for (good) PC games, I must admit that as good as this may be (I haven't received it yet), for me it's really just a stop-gap until Battlefield 3 arrives.

  • SFG_Clan #38 2 years ago

    Love it, need it, nothing can beat it.
    Apart from Bad Company 3

  • SleepyDeathFred #39 2 years ago

    I'm consistently getting stuck in games with Americans - annoying cos of the likelihood of a worse connection.

  • DeeTee_uk #40 2 years ago

    I'm not bothered which platform is top. I'm playing it on PC, and really enjoying it. I'm sure the Xbox guys are too. It's just nice to have a new shooter that I can really get behind.

  • vadimur #41 2 years ago

    With so many connection problems for the PC gamers, no wonder the console version tops. Once the PC's connections or specifically the servers are sorted out, PC will have the biggest crowd.