‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ Popularity Resurges, Breaking Steam All-Time Peak As Fans Beg For ‘Battlefront III’
Star Wars Battlefront II has seen a resurgence of players, breaking its all-time peak on Steam. While brought about by myriad factors, most fans appear to be asking for a sequel, what would be Star Wars Battlefront III.
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Despite being released in 2017 and chugging along with around 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent players (per SteamDB), May 2025 saw Star Wars Battlefront II spike to over 18,600 concurrent players. Its prior all-time peak was back in January 2021, with over 10,400 players. VGC‘s Jordan Middler also reports the game has re-entered Steam’s top 25 selling titles, meaning new players are signing up for the fight.
It should also be noted that the game is semi-frequently on sale on Steam with discounts of 75% to 90% off.
The reason for the revival has been attributed to Andor‘s season finale, alongside Star Wars Day celebrations. However, part of the reason appears to be encouraging EA to create Star Wars Battlefront III, with X users sharing hashtags such as #Battlefront3 and #MakeBattlefront3, and the trend has spread to TikTok.
Even a playable build of a cancelled Star Wars: Battlefront III discovered back in December 2024 hadn’t sparked this much interest. To show just how far the call had spread, Star Wars actors have supported it.
Muhannad Ben Amor, Wilmon in Andor, stated on Instagram (via Reddit) “Star Wars gotta give us BATTLEFRONT 3 … ASAP.” He later added, “Grew up with Battlefront II– been a veteran since day one. Let’s HOPE Battlefront III happens!” along with a screenshot showing he had 469 hours of playtime.
Several Star Wars Battlefront II voice actors also spoke out. Janina Gavankar (Iden Versio) stated on Instagram, “Good things live on,” in regards to the games’ comeback.
Anthony Skordi meanwhile (Admiral Versio) pitched “#starwarsbattlefront2 fans want it. #Starwarsbattlefront3 Should it be a prequel to inferno squad? #AdmiralVersio approves.” The prequel idea echos Skordi’s earlier comments on X.
TJ Ramini (Del Meeko) was also asked if he could throw his voice behind the Battlefront III movement. “Del Meeko is most certainly all in. #StarWarsBattlefront3,” Ramini cheered.
Former developers of Star Wars Battlefront II also took notice. Associate Design Director Dennis Brännvall quipped, “I felt a great disturbance in the force. […] How have you been?” This was Brännvall’s first activity on X since 2023.
“Loving the renewed hype around #Battlefront2!,” gushed Harvey Newman. “I was Lead Animator on the game- if Battlefront 3 ever happens, I’d love to return. The team was excellent, and the community feedback loop was the best I’ve seen in my career. So many ideas left on the table!”
Even web browsers and root beer companies are reportedly getting in on the act, and a Change.org petition to make Star Wars Battlefront III is sitting at over 14,000 signatures at this time.
Another Star Wars Battlefront II alumni Mats Helge Holm- QA analyst, associate producer for its Celebration Edition Upgrade- was yet another hoping for a comeback. When a Reddit user asked which developers had confirmed they’d return, Holm (Matshelge) replied “Me, and having heard around my group of ex-colleagues, we want to get the gang back together.”
Holm did confess to another user that getting Brännvall back would be difficult, as he’d “moved up north.” Holm did temper expectations for fans. In another thread, Holm corrected the claim most of the developers had gone to Embark.
“No, we spread all over infact. A few went to Ubisoft, some went independent, some to King, Avalanche, Star Stables, Paradox, Starbreeze, Mojang to name a few. Some left Stockholm to join game companies abroad as well. Embark has a lot of the people who made base game, but the people who made the Live Game did not leave in a pack. We all slowly drifted after being put on Battlefield,” Holm laid out.
When one Reddit user asked how likely Battlefront III getting greenlit would be, Holm confessed “I don’t expect battlefront 3 to be announced at the end of this rally. But overall, yeah, I think there are people who are talking about it.”
While getting the exact same developers back was unlikely, Holm noted “Battlefront 2 is wrapped, I don’t think any updates no matter what. New game, who knows.”
For those unfamiliar, Star Wars Battlefront II was initially loathed thanks to egregious lootboxes in a premium game. Fans calculated you’d need to spend 4,500 hours of play or $2,100 to unlock everything. EA’s response attempting to justify it (such as Darth Vader essentially being $80) became the most downvoted comment on Reddit. The debacle arguably started world governments’ looking into restricting or banning loot boxes.
EA would remove the lootboxes in 2018, and ceased updates in 2020. While that should have been its death knell, the game continued to have a player base and defenders. YouTuber RussianBadger produced two videos in 2021 and 2022 (with 15.8 million views) emphasizing it was “non-stop brainless fun” as a casual shooter.
“To put it in plain English, this s–t is cash-money and worth your time” Badger emphasized. Nonetheless he admitted it lacked balance, had a small player base, and was effectively “abandoned” by the developers. This made the issue of hackers worse, an issue that persists to this day.
It seems new fans have discovered the old “sacred texts,” and want more. But the gaming world is very different to what it was in 2017, and even EA isn’t the biggest villain in the room anymore. Would Star Wars Battlefront III repeat history with an overblown battle pass and endless DLC? Would it play like the 2017 game or other modern FPS titles?
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