EA’s 2021: Year in Gaming recap doesn’t mention Battlefield 2042 a single time

Update: Electronic Arts has given us more context as to why Battlefield 2042 wasn’t included in its “2021: Year in Gaming” recap. According to a PR rep, and as we speculated in our original story, its November launch window didn’t give the team “enough player data” for it to be included in the infographic. EA sent us the following statement:

“Battlefield is a massive franchise for us, and the launch of Battlefield 2042 in November was one of the most important to us this year. The goal of EA’s 2021: Year in Gaming unveils how our global community engaged with our games throughout the calendar year. We look forward to including a full calendar year of Battlefield 2042 player data in the 2022: Year in Gaming report.

Original Story: You’d expect that the first Battlefield game to launch in three years would get a mention in publisher Electronic Arts’ end-of-year recap, right? Well, you would be wrong.

EA recently released its “2021: Year in Gaming” recap, where it divulges some interesting data and statistics that have come from its games, and Battlefield 2042 isn’t mentioned a single time. Seriously, CTRL+F “Battlefield” and you won’t find it mentioned anywhere.

It does mention the amount of goals scored in FIFA 21 (22.3 billion in 9.7 billion matches played), total knockouts in UFC 4 (325 million), and the amount of pings placed in Apex Legends (322 billion). But nowhere in sight is a mention of Rangers called down, players revived, or helicopters shot down by tanks in Battlefield 2042.

The omission is especially noteworthy considering Battlefield 2042, despite its rough launch, sold well. NPD’s Mat Piscatella recently shared on Twitter that 2042 was the second best-selling game of November 2021 and the sixth best-selling game of 2021 so far.

The publisher even doubled-down on Battlefield recently, revealing that Respawn’s Vince Zamepella would now be heading up the franchise, with multiple studios working on future titles in the “Battlefield universe.” It’s possible that 2042‘s November release didn’t give the team enough time to gather interesting data, but its absence is still glaring.

You can check out the rest of EA’s “2021: Year in Gaming” numbers in this handy-dandy infographic. The data that makes up the infographic comes courtesy of EA’s Studio Data & Analytics team, which tracks trends in player behavior and then “proposes, develops and deploys intelligent solutions to help game developers make and maintain better games.”