Hazard Zone, a slow-paced tactical battle royal substitute for Battlefield 2042, has apparently failed to sustain its player-base, or any player-base for that matter.
Taking to Twitter earlier today, well-known Battlefield insider Tom Henderson claimed that Hazard Zone was declared a bust within the first week of its launch. The overall player-count was apparently so low that developer DICE stopped tracking the players and their statistics in Hazard Zone after Thanksgiving.
Henderson furthermore pointed out that players should not expect DICE to improve the current state of the mode, at least not so early due to the low player-count. The player-base should hence move on to the other modes provided that they are still enjoying the overall Battlefield 2042 experience.
There's that few players in Hazard Zone that they didn't even bother to report statistics internally on it after Thanksgiving (Day 7 after worldwide launch).
So yeah, Hazard Zone is an unsurprising bust and I wouldn't expect support on it.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) January 10, 2022
Hazard Zone was the last game mode to be revealed for Battlefield 2042 and as such was the most hyped of the lot. Battlefield 2042 did not receive the traditional battle royale mode. What it did receive was a blend of Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown where players go against each other in a high-risk high-reward situation.
While the concept sounded good on paper, Hazard Zone requires constant communication between players due to its tactical nature. The irony being that the built-in voice option was never released alongside by DICE and which made the mode incredibly hard to enjoy and play.
To make matters worse, there were rumors that Battlefield 2042 would eventually receive a battle royale mode. In that light, many players believed that Hazard Zone would be free to play. It was not and requires a copy of Battlefield 2042.
Unless DICE comes up with a series of updates to quell player-concerns, it would not be surprising to see Hazard Zone go free to play in the near future. That would help boost the player-count or else risk history repeating itself as it did with the paid-for Firestorm battle royale mode with Battlefield 5.
