According to EA, millions of people are still playing online shooter Star Wars: Battlefront.

The mega publisher reported its financial results for the three month period ending 30th June, and during that time 6.6 million played DICE's Star Wars game.

That number surprised me somewhat, as I, along with I think most who are not embedded within the Star Wars: Battlefront community, had considered the game to have burnt brightly upon its November 2015 release but dwindled since.

Why? Common complaints revolve around the lack of depth to the gameplay and the lack of content. The upshot is, I thought, that players had moved on.

EA's numbers suggest otherwise, however. But let's dig into the detail. Well, the quarter period saw a free trial for the game. From 13th May to 15th May, all players had the chance to go hands-on with the Star Wars: Battlefront Outer Rim content (the game's second DLC expansion) for free. That promotion will no doubt have brought many players back online.

To get a more accurate idea of how Star Wars: Battlefront is doing, it's worth having a look at a website called swbstats.com. At the time of publication, 23,455 were playing the game across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

That's not bad. But the figure is dwarfed by DICE's other first-person shooter franchise, Battlefield. According to BF4stats.com, Battlefield 4, which came out in 2013, has 80,920 people playing across all platforms at the time of publication.

As part of its financial results, EA said the Battlefield franchise, led by Battlefield 4, had more than 11.5 million players during the quarter. Impressive.

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So what now for Star Wars: Battlefront? Add-on packs will no doubt keeping players interested, particularly those who forked out for a season pass. I've mentioned Outer Rim, which came out in March. Bespin came out 21st June. The next is Death Star, due out in September. I reckon loads of people will turn up for that expansion because it adds the iconic Death Star, as well as Chewbacca. And then there's the final expansion pack Rogue One: Scarif, due out "holiday" 2016. This is based on the upcoming Rogue One film, which I'm sure will be huge.

And then, of course, we have the already announced Star Wars: Battlefront 2, due out in 2017. Relentless.

In a Q&A following the release of the financials, EA boss Andrew Wilson said he was "overjoyed" with the performance of Star Wars: Battlefront, and optimistic for the future.

"As each movie comes out over the time of our relationship, we expect that the Star Wars community will continue to grow and we will be doing our best to align, in some cases, the content and experiences and, in some cases, just the passion for Star Wars," he said.

"But certainly aligning what we're doing around the Star Wars universe with what's more broadly happening with Star Wars pop culture. And we think that's a win as we continue to live up to the fans long term."