EA have confirmed that the next mainline Battlefield game is primed for launch in 2021, and they will have a lot of expectations riding on the first person shooter. Battlefield has generally been one of EA’s best performing franchises, and sold incredible figures at its best- but how much will Battlefield 6 sell, especially after the relatively disappointing sales of 2019’s Battlefield 5?

According to industry analyst Michael Pachter, it might not end up selling as well as many are expecting it to. Speaking with with GamingBolt in a recent interview, the veteran remarked that the best-performing Battlefield games – Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 – have launched against the lowest rated Call of Duty titles, suggesting that the two are linked. Pachter added that the likelihood of Battlefield 6 launching against another well-received Call of Duty title are high, and as such, DICE’s shooter might end up selling fewer units than anticipated.

“The two Battlefield games that did super well were 4 and 1, and they came out against the two lowest rated Call of Duty games,” Pachter said. “So both of those Battlefield games did super well. Then the next Battlefield game came out against Black Ops 4, which was one of the best received games in the Call of Duty franchise, and it didn’t do that well. I mean it still sold 8 million units, but the others have done 15 million. So I think that EA has a problem with Battlefield because it is so close to Call of Duty, it plays and looks the same. And obviously there are fans of each IP for different reasons, but they are both military FPSes.”

“So I think that the odds of Battlefield going up against another well received Call of Duty are pretty high, so I would say Battlefield will sell worse than people expect, because it will be up against a tough competitor,” he continued. “But hey, if they make a great game, market it well, and have a good launch window, maybe they’ll fare better next time.”

Battlefield 6 will launch some time next year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC- it remains to be seen whether it will come to PS4 and Xbox One as well. In May of this year, EA CEO Andre Wilson remarked that the shooter’s development was “progressing very, very well.”

A recent rumour suggested that the game would be taking the series back to a modern-day setting, while another report has claimed that its multiplayer maps are being designed with 128+ players in mind. Read both stories through the links.