For the first time in, well…ever, a Call of Duty title is struggling in both sales numbers as well as overall player engagements which comes across as absolutely shocking and maybe a bit disheartening cause for years and years, Activision’s flagship shooter franchise has been one of the biggest hits in all of gaming, racking up millions in sales as well as holding impressively high number of player counts.
But this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has a lot of catching up to do as the first person shooter’s European launch saw opening week sales down by 63% compared to it’s rival Battlefield 6 during the equivalent launch periods for each shooter along with around 50% lower numbers than it’s own predecessor, Black Ops 6.
And recently, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has spoke on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s rather disappointing launch, while also staying optimistic on the shooter’s future:
“Right now, it is one of the most-played games on Xbox. And I’m really proud of what the team did, in terms of feature innovation, moving the franchise forward. Shipping a major franchise like clockwork every year is a really difficult task, and I’m really proud of what the team did to move the franchise forward in that way.
“And the interesting thing about Call of Duty is, I think that as an IP, it is really well positioned to continue to deliver content for players going forward; the system of seasons. And it’s not just about the launch, but it’s kind of in its own unique category and ability in terms of how the team keeps delivering content throughout the year. So we’re real happy with where we’ve landed with that.”
According to Microsoft, despite having a less-than-ideal launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is still the number one franchise on Game Pass for total players and hours all year which shouldn’t be surprising at all cause this is still Call of Duty, so there’s that.
Black Ops 7’s current sales results and player retention has also urged the developers to bring major changes to the annual schedule of releasing back-to-back Modern Warfare and Black Ops titles as they have confirmed to implement a much different release lineup from now on.
