The disappointing release of Black Ops 7 has rounded out a “tough” year for Call Of Duty, say industry experts.
Last year’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 broke franchise records and ended up the best-selling game in America, despite being free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. This year’s direct sequel Black Ops 7 launched last month but was met with drastically lower sales. According to UK sales tracker GfK, Black Ops 7 physical sales were down 61 per cent compared to Black Ops 6’s launch weekend, with the game also struggling to match the highs of previous entries in North America and Asia.
In a new interview with Eurogamer, The Game Business’ Chris Dring said that “Call Of Duty has had a hard year” and despite the success of Black Ops 6, “fewer people are playing Call Of Duty this year than they have been before.”
He said the lower-than-usual sales might be down to more competition. “If you’re just launching a brand-new shooter on the market and it’s getting a mixed reception, you’ve got Arc Raiders as well as Battlefield 6, so it didn’t really come out in the best environment.”
“Call Of Duty is underperforming this year due to a combination of community burnout, questionable creative and business decisions by Activision/Microsoft, and strong competition. Xbox dropped the ball on the wrong year,” added Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics. ”The marketing cycle tried to appeal to everyone, but ended up appealing to nobody.”
However Dring pointed out that Call Of Duty is still attracting around 20million players every month. “Even if the franchise has fallen a little bit this year, that’s still mega numbers. Most games would kill for that.“
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 season one launches today (December 4). Developers have promised the “biggest ever” season one with a “massive variety of maps, modes, Loadout content, and more, including four Multiplayer maps and the new Astra Malorum Zombies map on day one.”
In other news, Evanescence have announced they will be performing their Devil May Cry anthem ‘Afterlife’ at The Game Awards ahead of a 2026 world tour.
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