Battlefield 2042 has had an interesting pre-release life, to say the least, as EA and developers Ripple Effect have announced that it would be multiplayer-only with 128 players on next-gen and PC, along with the possibility of cross-play.
However, as most gamers with experience in Battlefield 2042's multiplayer will tell you, guaranteeing 128 players in every game of Battlefield 2042 is unlikely and the devs know this, as AI bots will fill up all empty spaces should the player count not reach its limit before a game starts.
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Can I Turn Off AI Bots In Battlefield 2042?
Naturally, a number of players do find AI bots in Battlefield 2042 distracting and are hoping for a chance to turn them off so they can just shoot other people instead.
Unfortunately, that’s not an option in normal All-Out Warfare play - AI bots cannot be removed unless the full player count is hit.
The devs did state that players will take priority over AI bots so no one will have to worry about that in Battlefield 2042 but those that were hoping to never run into an AI player will be disappointed. In fairness though, it's unrealistic to expect a constantly-full 128-player match. Hopefully, enough players will be available in all regions to bring the games to full capacity though.
In a post-beta update, it was also stated that Battlefield 2042 will have a much better experience when it comes to getting full lobbies of real players. According to the Battlefield Briefing, the dev team are much more able to get to the bottom of these issues.
"Bots are not designed as a replacement for other players. Throughout the Open Beta, we were able to dedicate a great deal of time into looking at why the servers were sending certain groups of players into predominantly Bot populated matches. Our teams were then able to make real time changes to the behaviours of Matchmaking to ensure that servers were being stood up with heavy majority human players, and that appropriate backfilling was happening where we expected it too."
It will be interesting to see if EA and Ripple Effect eventually adds the option to remove AI bots but we doubt that, at least for the next few updates.
It's also important to note that in Battlefield Portal, you'll have all kinds of options for tweaking AI bots, removing them entirely included. It might leave you with fewer players in total, but it's worth doing if you can't stand those computerised baddies.
Battlefield 2042 out now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. Check out more of our guides, including our Battlefield 2042 Guide Hub and the best Battlefield 2042 guns.