Although Battlefield 6 has garnered a ton of interest among the majority of players out there thanks to it’s recent open beta, it may not be nearly enough to even come close to dethroning Call of Duty from it’s status of the reigning champion when it comes to the highest selling first person shooter worldwide. In a recent report published by the Alinea Analytics newsletter, it’s been clearly indicated that the upcoming Black Ops 7 could outsell Battlefield 6 simply by the power of recurring consumer habits or ‘autopilot purchasing’.
Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics has said that even if Battlefield 6 could turn out to be a greater game by every conceivable yardstick, it still won’t be enough to surpass Call of Duty in terms of actual sales figures considering the immense amount of momentum Activision’s juggernaut franchise has behind it thanks to the games being annual releases which drives a psychological imprint in the minds of players, irrespective of the quality of the game.
“COD is still dominant despite all this. Its core audience still loves the game and buys it every damn year. And that isn’t going to change just because Battlefield 6 is rad and tracking incredibly well.”
“For many gamers, Call of Duty is an annual ritual. Tens of millions of players, many of them casual gamers, buy the newest CoD every year without hesitation. This “autopilot purchasing” habit is decades deep, and breaking it requires more than one awesome Battlefield release.”
It doesn’t seem that even EA would consider the possibility of Battlefield 6 actually outselling Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in this year, which would be frankly unrealistic for a number of reasons. However, if the upcoming Battlefield title can actually prove itself to be a better first person shooter than Black Ops 7, it could put a serious dent on the overall playerbase of Call of Duty in the long term.
Battlefield 6 is slated to be released on October 10 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
