On July 14, 2025, the second open beta of Battlefield 6 kicks off, giving you the opportunity to test a new map as well as a familiar mode.
What changes in the second beta? As DICE employee and Battlefield developer Daniel Cambrand revealed on X, the second beta of Battlefield 6 will bring a few special innovations compared to the first beta.
The big highlight is the introduction of a new map: Empire State. Additionally, the new mode “Squad Deathmatch” will be introduced. This is an alternative to the classic Team Deathmatch. In Squad Deathmatch, four 4-man squads compete for victory. The legendary Battlefield mode “Rush” will also be playable in the second beta test.
In Rush, the two teams (each with 32 players) are divided into attackers and defenders. The attackers must sequentially capture and destroy specific sectors, which the defenders aim to prevent. The attackers lose if they use up all their tickets. The defenders have infinite tickets but lose as soon as all sectors are destroyed.
A map with the potential to become the new Metro
What makes the map so special? Empire State takes place in the streets of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. The focus of the map is urban combat. Between the buildings are narrow streets and alleys, but you don’t have to watch out for tanks or helicopters on these streets.
Empire State is a pure infantry map, similar to the popular Battlefield maps Operation Metro and Spind. You are only with your soldiers. This naturally creates a very different gameplay flow than you experience on the large, expansive maps with various vehicles.
The streets and alleys of the map will become heavily contested hotspots in combat, as I noted during my first test of Battlefield 6 at the reveal event of the shooter. Even within the buildings, there are points where the infantry troops from both teams can encounter each other.
This could lead to those typical moments that you know from maps like Metro and Spind: both teams gather at the hotspots, endlessly firing explosive projectiles into the passage and occasionally poking into the opponents’ nest, until one of the teams manages to break through at least temporarily and capture the nearest flag.
Will the other content be playable again? Yes, in addition to the new map and the modes Squad Deathmatch and Rush, the previously available maps and modes will also be accessible again. You will thus have a total of 4 of the 9 launch maps of Battlefield 6 to choose from.
Among the three maps that were playable in the first open beta – namely Iberian Offensive, Siege of Cairo, and Liberation Peak – there is one map that I found significantly less enjoyable than the other two. After about 20 hours in the beta, I ranked the three maps. You can see the results on MeinMMO: Battlefield 6: The 3 Maps of the Beta Ranked – There is a clear loser
