Battlefield 6 is bringing persistent servers to Portal mode, fulfilling a major fan request.
EA has confirmed a crucial feature for Battlefield 6: Portal mode will support persistent servers. This means that servers you create will remain online and visible in the server browser even when no one is on them.
This news may sound simple at first, but the impact is huge: In the future, when you create a server in portal mode with your own rules, map rotations, modifications, and maybe even rebuilt maps, it will no longer be simply shut down as soon as the last player leaves it.
Instead, it will remain permanently listed in the server browser—a crucial point for many fans.
This change makes it possible to build strong communities around specific servers – the Counter-Strike veterans among you may remember the legendary Kifferstübchen
, whose Steam group still has over 750,000 members today.
You can save your favorite servers as favorites and find them again at any time without having to hope that the creator is online.
Whether it’s a hardcore server with customized rules or a 24/7 rotation of your favorite map, these places could become real digital meeting places that you’ll want to return to.
You can get a first look at the server browser and the settings options here:
Why this is so important
To understand the significance of this decision, it’s worth taking a quick look at the series’ recent history. In Battlefield 5, the so-called “Community Games” were not persistent. As soon as a server was empty, it was shut down. This made it virtually impossible to retain a loyal player base on a particular server.
The lack of this feature was also heavily criticized in Battlefield 2042 at first. DICE later added persistent servers with update 2.2 for Portal mode, but tied the feature to ownership of the Premium Battle Pass. In the next installment, the feature will be available from the start and completely free of charge. What do you think? Did you want this server feature, or do you not care at all because you only play in matchmaking anyway? Let us know in the comments section!