Infantry Modes

Battlefield 6's small infantry modes are Team Deathmatch (8v8, first to 100 kills), Squad Deathmatch (four squads of four, first to 50), Domination (8v8, first to 200 points), King of the Hill (8v8, one moving zone), the 4v4 one-life Strikepoint (out of rotation as of Nov 8, 2026) and the 8v8 Sabotage event mode.

Battlefield 6 has six small, infantry-only modes for short sessions: four launched with the game on Oct 10, 2025 (Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, Domination and King of the Hill), and Season 1 added the one-life 4v4 Strikepoint and the limited-time 8v8 Sabotage. EA calls the launch four "Battlefield-inspired tactical modes", modes from the wider shooter genre given Battlefield's classes, squads and destruction. Most are 16 players and last about ten minutes. Tactical Obliteration, the 8v8 bomb mode, is on Obliteration.

Quick facts

Mode	Players	How you win	Length	Arrived
Team Deathmatch	16 (8v8)	First team to 100 kills	About 10 minutes	Launch
Squad Deathmatch	16 (4v4v4v4)	First squad to 50 kills	About 10 minutes	Launch
Domination	16 (8v8)	First to 200 points from held flags	About 10 minutes	Launch
King of the Hill	16 (8v8)	Most points from holding one moving zone	About 10 minutes	Launch
Strikepoint	8 (4v4)	First to six rounds, one life a round	Varies	Oct 28, 2025
Sabotage	16 (8v8)	Destroy more cargo zones, or all of them faster	Two rounds	Nov 18, 2025, limited

Counts, kill targets and lengths for the launch four are TheGamer's (Oct 10, 2025); Strikepoint's and Sabotage's are EA's.

Team Deathmatch

5:55 Two teams of eight, and the only objective is the other team. EA's description is short: "Most kills wins". The first team to 100 kills wins. It is the mode for warming up, testing a new gun after the Firing Range, and grinding weapon mastery, since every life is a fight. In the clip, IGN's multiplayer review calls it "a good warm-up" before the big modes.

Squad Deathmatch

Four squads of four in one match, each racing to 50 kills. Having three enemy squads instead of one means fights come from every side, and a squad that sticks together, revives and trades kills beats four players playing alone. It was one of the first modes EA showed: IGN's full Squad Deathmatch on Empire State went up on Jul 31, 2025, the day of the multiplayer reveal.

Domination

10:01 Domination is Conquest at small scale: eight against eight, infantry only, on compact Combat Zones. Both teams start at zero and earn points for each flag they hold; kills add nothing to the score and respawns are instant. The first team to 200 points wins. GravityBFTV's beta map review, in the clip, called Siege of Cairo's Domination and King of the Hill layouts "largely excellent" (Aug 18, 2025). Saints Quarter's launch Combat Zone for it is "Contact Shot", around the Old Town fountain (EA maps). Domination was also one of the two modes of the Ice Lock event in December 2025, with the Freeze mechanic (Limited-Time Modes).

King of the Hill

1:10 One zone appears on the map for a minute. The team inside it scores one point a second, up to 60 a zone, and then it moves. In EA's words, "Control points move and cooperation is key": the team that rotates to the next zone first usually wins it. The rules were different in the August 2025 beta: TheGamer's beta explainer, in the clip, gave Domination as 8v8 over three flags to 200 points and King of the Hill as first to 250 points. King of the Hill's XP was low at launch; EA said on Oct 24, 2025 that payouts for it and Escalation were "not always working as intended" and raised them. Later fixes taught bots to move to locked objectives (1.1.3.0) and let Cairo Bazaar's Objective A be captured from the Assault Ladder and nearby stairs (1.3.3.0).

King of the Hill and Domination became Verified Modes in Portal with the Tidal Strike update on Sep 15, 2026 (EA), so hosts can now build their own with full progression.

Strikepoint

Strikepoint was Season 1's new mode on Oct 28, 2025, "designed for 4v4 combat": "This fast-paced first-to-6 match has no respawns and only one capture point. To win a round, capture the point, or eliminate the enemy team." Downed players crawl rather than respawn, so revives decide rounds, and the HUD shows how many on each side are alive, downed or dead. On Blackwell Fields it is played around the military depot.

Strikepoint was part of the Season 1 criticism: Kotaku listed it on Oct 29, 2025 among what players disliked about the first season, alongside the small new map. It was still getting fixes on Jun 30, 2026, when update 1.3.3.0 stopped rounds ending in a tie after a full team wipe, but by EA's Jul 30, 2026 questions and answers it was out of the rotation. EA's two statements since:

So as of Nov 8, 2026 Strikepoint has no return date. We think it will not come back as its own playlist: "lower popularity" is the reason EA gives for not fixing it, and Tactical Obliteration now fills the 8v8 competitive slot. In our view its best chance is as a mode in the Multiplayer Ranked playlist EA is still building, since one-life rounds are the format ranked shooters use. See Predictions.

Sabotage

Sabotage came with California Resistance on Nov 18, 2025 as a limited-time mode for 8v8. Two rounds let both teams attack and defend. There are three cargo zones, A, B and C, each holding radars, air drops, ammo stacks and supply crates that "take damage from grenades, gadgets, explosives". The attackers must destroy everything in a zone to score it, one point a zone; then the teams swap and the other side tries to beat that score. If both destroy all three zones, the faster team wins, and a short overtime runs while attackers are still in a zone with cargo left. It ran on several maps, including Eastwood and Blackwell Fields, and was still getting fixes in February 2026, when 1.2.1.0 stopped attackers spawn-camping defenders on Blackwell Fields.

Which infantry mode should you play?

1:02 Map size decides which of these modes a map carries. GravityBFTV's Feb 8, 2026 map breakdown, in the clip, notes that the smallest launch map is so compact it only features certain close-quarters modes.

To learn guns: Team Deathmatch. Every life is a gunfight and nothing else distracts you.
To play with friends: Squad Deathmatch, where four friends are one team.
To learn maps and flags: Domination, which teaches the flag routes you will use in Conquest.
For movement and rotations: King of the Hill; the team that reaches the next zone first wins it.
For explosives and destruction: Sabotage, the one mode where blowing things up is the objective.

Frequently asked questions

How many players are in Battlefield 6 Team Deathmatch?

16, two teams of eight, first to 100 kills.

Is Strikepoint still in Battlefield 6?

Not in official playlists as of Nov 8, 2026. EA said on Oct 21, 2026 that the mode "still has bugs" and gave no return date.

Is there Search and Destroy in Battlefield 6?

No mode by that name. Strikepoint, with one life per round and first to six rounds, was the closest.

Do kills count in Domination?

No. Only held flags score, and respawns are instant.

Can I play only Team Deathmatch?

Official playlists rotate. The server browser rolling out after Nov 10, 2026 lets you filter servers by mode; see Portal and Server Browser.

Sources

Moments

Battlefield 6 Multiplayer Review

IGN

5:55 Two teams of eight, and the only objective is the other team. EA's description is short: "Most kills wins". The first…

Battlefield 6 Beta Maps - Overviews, Analysis, Impressions.

GravityBFTV

10:01 Domination is Conquest at small scale: eight against eight, infantry only, on compact Combat Zones. Both teams start…

Battlefield 6: All Modes, Explained

TheGamer

1:10 One zone appears on the map for a minute. The team inside it scores one point a second, up to 60 a zone, and then it…

BF6 Map Design: The Good. The Bad. And the Ugly.