The Battlefield 6 beta isn’t slated to officially launch for another two days, yet a significant number of enthusiastic players are already logging in. The beta reached over 9,000 concurrent players on Steam yesterday as preloading commenced.

Many of these players may have logged in briefly to make initial setups—adjusting graphic settings and optimizing shaders—to ensure a seamless experience later. This makes sense, but what’s curious is the several thousand players who remain in the menus, with over 5,000 currently ‘playing’ the beta, which only features a splash screen at this point.

Are they aware of an undisclosed way to access specific game modes? Perhaps they think showing up early will get them ahead when the beta opens? It’s likely that their excitement for this next Battlefield installment drives them to wait.

Despite Battlefield 2042 having reestablished its footing after a rocky start, early impressions of Battlefield 6 paint a much more positive picture. After testing the game for four hours in Los Angeles last week, it still occupies my thoughts.

The beta is set to start for Battlefield Labs members, EA Play Pro subscribers, and others who received access through Twitch drops on August 7. It becomes open to everyone from August 9 – August 10.