Electronic Arts’ two-stage open beta for Battlefield 6 drew an unprecedented audience, recording more than 400,000 simultaneous players on Steam during its first public weekend and topping 500,000 in the second. The peaks eclipsed the series’ previous best and overtook Call of Duty’s record for the platform, signalling strong demand ahead of the game’s 10 October release. Robust anti-cheat measures were stress-tested at the same time. EA’s dedicated security team reported that its software blocked 330,000 cheating attempts in the first 48 hours of early access, while players themselves flagged an additional 104,000 suspicious incidents. The test required PC participants to enable Secure Boot, yet illicit activity persisted, underlining the scale of enforcement required at launch. Investor sentiment followed the surge in player interest. EA shares set a record high after the beta, and analytics firm Alinea estimates more than 600,000 Steam pre-orders to date, forecasting that total pre-sales could pass one million before release. The firm values current pre-order revenue at roughly US$35 million. Developer DICE moved quickly to address player feedback. It trimmed Rush mode’s bomb-detonation timer from 45 to 30 seconds and standardised defender respawns at 12 seconds in both Rush and Breakthrough, with further balance changes promised. Weekend 2 also introduced a new map, matchmaking filters and playlist updates as the studio continues to tune performance ahead of launch.