Star Wars Battlefront 2 servers are still struggling with an influx of new players courtesy of Epic's giveaway
UPDATE: 19m players recruited.
UPDATE 26/1/21: 19 million players took advantage of Star Wars Battlefront 2's Epic Games Store promotion, EA revealed last night. No wonder those servers struggled.
We don't always hear how well an Epic Games Store freebie has done - but it's likely EA will be pleased by these numbers. Here's hoping these new recruits help fill the game's multiplayer lobbies for the foreseeable future.
"Thank you so much for the continued support, even after our final content drop!" EA wrote. "We'll watch your careers with great interest!"
ORIGINAL STORY 17/1/21: A heap of shiny new Star Wars Battlefront 2 players courtesy of the latest Epic Games Store giveaway have crashed the servers.
As we reported last week, Epic's current freebie - the Celebration Edition of Battlefront 2 - features all the post-launch additions, as well as all cosmetic content previously available as in-game purchases, right up to and including those released as part of the game's Rise of Skywalker update.
However, since the freebie was launched many players have had problems connecting to the online servers, reporting error codes 623, 918, and 721 - all of which translate to server issues.
"Seeing Error Message 623 or 918 in #StarWarsBattlefrontII?" EA tweeted recently (thanks, PC Gamer). "Sit tight, we're on it! An incredible number of players have joined us during our @EpicGames Store free week and we're scaling up new servers to welcome you all to the Battlefront."
Despite a subsequent tweet that reported that "the issue affecting #StarWarsBattlefrontII server capacity has been resolved" and wished all players "may the Force be with you", players are seemingly continuing to experience difficulties, which is frustrating those hoping to make good of the weekend's double XP promotion.
Players can add Star War Battlefront 2's Celebration Edition to their Epic Store libraries at no cost from now until 21st January 2021.