Call of Duty Franchise Reaches Half a Billion Sales… Not Even Counting Black Ops 6

Xbox subsidiary Activision Blizzard has revealed the Call of Duty franchise has now crossed an eye-watering half a billion units sold ahead of the release of Black Ops 6.

Activision Blizzard told The Washington Post of the 500 million figure, which was reached prior to Black Ops 6 having the biggest Call of Duty launch of all time. It enjoyed the highest player numbers, hours logged, and total matches played in its opening weekend.

Black Ops 6 is undeniably a huge success, not only because critics have praised its fast-paced multiplayer modes and return to form single player campaign, but there are some caveats to the figures boasted by Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.

The former now owns the latter, meaning Black Ops 6 was the first Call of Duty to launch straight onto Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft said Game Pass set a new record for new subscribers in one day, but didn’t reveal how many sales were lost as a result.

Ahead of launch, analysts expected Black Ops 6 to boost Game Pass subscribers by between 2.5 million and four million, but at the cost of six million lost sales. There’s also nothing to stop these new subscribers cancelling their subscription before it renews in November, effectively awarding them Black Ops 6 for $19.99 instead of the usual $69.99.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attempted to offset these concerns in an investors call, saying Black Ops 6 sales were up 60% compared to 2023’s Modern Warfare 3, but this entry was universally panned so naturally provided a bigger jump to Black Ops 6.

IGN’s review of the single player game awarded it a 4/10, for example, calling it “underbaked, rehashed, and cobbled together,” and it otherwise peaked at a 6/10 with our multiplayer review. “Modern Warfare 3 reheats and reserves the same multiplayer from Modern Warfare 2 with some extra maps and tweaks,” we said.

As these reviews insinuate, Modern Warfare 3 was reportedly just an expansion for Modern Warfare 2 that Activision Blizzard moulded into a full entry as to not miss an annualized release. Its development time was reportedly just half what a normal entry is given and even industry peers poked fun at its release.

This let Hogwarts Legacy become the first non Call of Duty or Rockstar game to top U.S. sales charts since 2008, and Black Ops 6 campaign developer Raven Software even commented on its reaction publicly amid concerns for its new game.

It’s this historically low Call of Duty performance that Nadella said Black Ops 6 was performing 60% better than, so while still impressive, it’s not as grand a proclamation as it seems at first glance.

Black Ops 6 does appear to have outperformed 2022 release Modern Warfare 2 as well, however, as Steam data shows it enjoyed a higher opening weekend. No more specific sales information has been shared.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

This article was amended post-publication to correct that the 500 million figure is pre-Black Ops 6, not post-.