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Black Ops 6 sees lowest Call of Duty player count in years despite record-breaking launch
T88heon
Member
Aug 26, 2024
977
According to a report from The Game Business using data from Ampere, Black Ops 6 has a lower overall player count than it did in both March 2023 and 2024.
When Black Ops 6 launched on Game Pass, Activision announced it was their most successful launch ever, attracting 33.7 million players. Their previous best was 2022's Modern Warfare 2, which had 31.4 million players in its launch month.
However, Black Ops 6's player count has been declining, dropping more sharply than any other year. Despite having the most players at launch, it had the lowest numbers yet in March 2025.
Source:
Black Ops 6 sees lowest Call of Duty player count in years despite record-breaking launch - Dexerto
Despite having the most players of all Call of Duty games, Black Ops 6 now has the lowest player count the franchise has seen in years.
www.dexerto.com
Given the discussion about the viability of GP and the lack of data I thought this was interesting.
rsfour
Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,428
Personally it's just a game that I'll play for a few weeks or a month, and just drop it because it's been samey samey for a long fucking time; then there's always balance issues, shit maps, etc that just don't make it fun to play for an extended period of time.
Jamrock User
Member
Jan 24, 2018
3,397
Awful maps.
The game is way too fast for such small maps. I couldn't even play enough to prestige.
Wallace
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,874
Midwest
Game is absolute fucking trash.
Duxxy3
Member
Oct 27, 2017
24,663
USA
I wonder if the typical annual buyers initially played the game on game pass, stopped playing and just didn't resub to gamepass to start playing again. Whereas if they had bought the game outright they'd be more likely to come back to the game they own.
Mr.Deadshot
Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,033
rsfour said:
Personally it's just a game that I'll play for a few weeks or a month, and just drop it because it's been samey samey for a long fucking time; then there's always balance issues, shit maps, etc that just don't make it fun to play for an extended period of time.
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This is me and my friend. We stopped playing when people started running around as dragons shooting lasers.
CloseTalker
Sister in the Craft
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,023
Interesting, I thought people were pretty high on the game. Guess competition for live service attention is just more fierce than it has ever been, there are so many options, especially in the F2P space, for your time.
Bishop89
What Are Ya' Selling?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,574
Melbourne, Australia
Yeah because it's a chaotic mess with probably the worst maps conceived in this franchise. It's just a meat grinder, like every map pretty much feels like shipment because there's no flow or pacing.
Broseph
Member
Mar 2, 2021
6,106
Not a CoD player but I'm surprised cause a lot of the word of mouth for the game when it came out felt pretty positive. Anything in particular that caused player count to decline?
Grenchel
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,604
Campaign was fun. Multi-player was okay, but frankly I am being outskilled by kids.
AaronMT
Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,326
Toronto
I'm so incredibly distant from the franchise these days that i completely forgot they made 6 Black Ops games
Dest
Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
15,957
Work
multiplayer felt great but the maps were some hot dogshit.
Sydle
Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,542
So it reached more people but didn't retain them as long.
That could be a content roadmap and monetization problem.
canderous
Prophet of Truth
Member
Jun 12, 2020
10,176
Canada
There's a lot of "forever game" competition these days. Personally I played the campaign, enjoyed it, and moved on and will never touch it again.
m_shortpants
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,233
ironically with gamepass I ended up playing it less.
Got in, played for a day or two, got my fill, and just fell off.
BrickArts295
GOTY Tracking Thread Master
Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,568
So the game is one of the highest grossing COD games but with less players playing it? Man people really like paying for skins/passes.
RoKKeR
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,065
BO6 core multiplayer has only gotten worse since release, unlike MW3 which only got better and better and was peaking this time last year.
Don't play Warzone so can't comment on it. I just didn't vibe with the MP as much this year. Campaign was great though.
Rosebud
Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
50,964
canderous said:
There's a lot of "forever game" competition these days. Personally I played the campaign, enjoyed it, and moved on and will never touch it again.
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Yeah, time is the biggest issue. I'm going crazy trying to juggle 4 service games and their damn timed events
Xyer
Avenger
Aug 26, 2018
10,026
I hated the campaign in this when I played it. I got a few levels in and realized it's all just semi-stealth missions, got bored and dropped it. Saved me so much hard drive space.
sheeldz
Member
Jun 8, 2021
1,000
Enjoyed the zombie mode and the campaign but for me the biggest issue is that it takes up 130Gb of my 390Gb xbox series storage.
The thing is, no one knows of this is considered a success by MS either way.
Wallace
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,874
Midwest
I'm telling ya, once Vondehaar bailed, Treyarch went to the shitter.
Juan
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,726
I played on GP until the half of the first season. When there were just too many crazy skins & weapons camo, it stopped being fun and became a visual mess so I stopped playing.
Also, the fact that it took almost 200Go was another reason to delete it and not come back.
Honestly, I enjoyed my time with it, played like 40 hours of MP in less than a month, which is a lot for me, don't regret it, it was a lot of fun when the game launched, but after a month or so, it was both a visual mess and so many weapons, it was just pure chaos but in a less fun way than it was at launch.
Until the next CoD, which I believe will be the same for me.
sheeldz
Member
Jun 8, 2021
1,000
Xyer said:
I got a few levels in and realized it's all just semi-stealth missions
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The game is 100% not all semistealth bar the few levels that are.
OP
OP
T88heon
Member
Aug 26, 2024
977
Broseph said:
Not a CoD player but I'm surprised cause a lot of the word of mouth for the game when it came out felt pretty positive. Anything in particular that caused player count to decline?
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The GP sub model definitely plays a part, imo of course.
TrippyTweaky
Member
Sep 29, 2019
245
United States
sheeldz said:
Enjoyed the zombie mode and the campaign but for me the biggest issue is that it takes up 130Gb of my 390Gb xbox series storage.
The thing is, no one knows of this is considered a success by MS either way.
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Games are way too damn big, this combined with the CoD HQ thing take up like 330 gigs on my ps5 lmao.
digit_zero
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,903
As someone who hated BLOPS6 during the beta / skipped it - I'd like to say this has to do with Black Ops 6, but this is just a Warzone fall off, which is really what drives the numbers since 2020 for COD.
Verdansk came back April 3rd, I'm sure the numbers already look significantly better and I really don't think people should be reading much into this other than Warzone had fallen off hard with Urzikstan
METAL GEAR REX
Member
Jun 11, 2023
2,507
Not played COD since MW3; just never really ever pulled me back in again. Plus unless you've got all the free time of a teenager or streamer you can't keep up with the skill level of the folks on there as well.
GingerBearMan27
Member
Oct 27, 2017
836
I personally get so turned off when all of the crazy skins start being added, which they generally wait until about a month after launch.
Forerunner
Resetufologist
The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
18,636
I dropped off and I'm glad BF is coming soon.
I'm not some kind of purist or anything, but the skins are off-putting. I know that COD isn't a mil-slim or anything like that, but BO6 takes it to the exterme with these cosmetics.
Remark
Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,109
BO6 gotta be the buggiest CoD since Vanguard and Warzone sucks this time around. They even kinda butchered Verdansk.
Campaign and Zombies are cool but that's not enough to keep people around.
Plus I think CoD has just become that game that people grind out from launch to the new year and drop until the new CoD comes out.
demi
Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,494
I only play Zombies and usually drop off after doing the story eggs, but the LTMs they do are very uninspired. Right now you can earn "Blaze Bucks" and you get to hear Seth Rogen call out powerups and such as you eat "munchies" as a pothead. Before that it was... collect clovers? Then it was... collect terminator skulls? Not much getting me to log in and do these events.
Gman!
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,292
Dallas
I was really into it when it first launched. But their anti-cheat is so god awful. One of my friends who I play with (And is legitimately good) was shadow-banned a month into the launch - and when we played with him it was all lobbies of cheaters. There was no appeal process and then he was eventually perma-banned.
Just garbage all around.
Selective
Member
May 5, 2025
118
No surprise - the game has a really high skill floor.
VIPER
Member
Nov 12, 2023
1,303
Rosebud said:
Yeah, time is the biggest issue. I'm going crazy trying to juggle 4 service games and their damn timed events
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I genuinely despise live service titles and their design around grinding / FOMO.
I miss the days when games were just simple and fun eg Modern Warfare 2, Killzone 2 MP, Uncharted 2 MP, TLOU MP.
Im actually enjoying Space Marine 2 PvP as of late. It's such a good experience.
criteriondog
I like the chili style
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,280
A lot of my friends and I returned to cod with this one (other than MW 19 and Warzone) after a few years, and after playing for awhile it didn't hold us long.
The launch maps were awful, outside of like two decent ones.
I really did not like the campaign. Other than two high moments, the rest of it was very forgettable and boring. It might be my most disliked Black Ops campaign, ignoring that BO 4 doesn't have one. Even as disconnected as BO3's campaign is from BO 1/2, I liked what that story was doing, and the co-op was cool, along with the future setting.
egg
The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
7,628
You know what they should do.
They should make a coop third person Call of Duty single player game, no multiplayer. Then skip a year then release a traditional Call of Duty that also has multiplayer.
This series needs a break and a fresh breath of air.
ZSeibar
Member
Nov 2, 2017
696
The awful maps and brain rot skins turned me off
Sordid Plebeian
Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,716
Sorry! I don't like AI generated slop
criteriondog
I like the chili style
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,280
digit_zero said:
As someone who hated BLOPS6 during the beta / skipped it - I'd like to say this has to do with Black Ops 6, but this is just a Warzone fall off, which is really what drives the numbers since 2020 for COD.
Verdansk came back April 3rd, I'm sure the numbers already look significantly better and I really don't think people should be reading much into this other than Warzone had fallen off hard with Urzikstan
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Verdansk's return is counted for in the article
Vaylenn
Member
Sep 18, 2024
8
Myself and many people I know just don't really see much point in putting so many hours into Call of Duty anymore when there will just be a new one in a year and we will need to start over. Not to mention everything is so transaction focused and the tone is just all over the place. Watching a ninja turtle get shot by a guy from squid game is just not exciting to me.
DJwest
Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,869
Is the next COD expected this year or in 2026?
Gavalanche
Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 21, 2021
25,618
I am shedding no tears.
Skel1ingt0n
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,430
The skins/look is effing TRAAAASH
Moose
Prophet of Truth - Hero of Bowerstone
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,845
Forerunner said:
I dropped off and I'm glad BF is coming soon.
I'm not some kind of purist or anything, but the skins are off-putting. I know that COD isn't a mil-slim or anything like that, but BO6 takes it to the exterme with these cosmetics.
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I hate this about modern games because of Overwatch and Fortnite nothing has a consistent visual identity anymore.
ezekial45
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,504
I dropped it earlier this year. I couldn't stand the stale maps and the over monetizing of the game. The battle pass strategy of having multiple passes in a season was just awful. The game's mtx just felt super brazen and scummy — including the use of AI content which just sticks out like a sore thumb — and it just wasn't worth playing anymore.
Azai
Member
Jun 10, 2020
5,224
personally, the game is a massive downgrade.
MWII was already a downgrade to MW19 in alot of ways but it still was fun.
But every CoD after was just worse and worse.
Gameplay got faster and faster and graphics and all that did get worse.
And the skins alone are a reason for me not to touch a CoD again.
Its just immersion breaking... and to say that for a arcade shooter like CoD game says alot
Sec0nd
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,941
There's a reason why the Modern Warfare games were so popular and brought back life into the franchise.
People online love to bash the MW games for straying away from what CoD was because it focused more on realistic gun feel, sounds, more realistic looking and feeling maps, slower gameplay, etc. Yet the games sold like gangbusters and held a pretty significant playbase throughout.
Then they release this game, which seemingly does everything people online have been screaming for (three lane maps, faster gun play and movement, more arcadey feel, no 'complicated' gun smith, etc. etc.) and nobody sticks around to play it.
If there is a lesson to be learned here it's probably to not listen to the loudest part of the fanbase.
criteriondog
I like the chili style
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,280
DJwest said:
Is the next COD expected this year or in 2026?
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Yeah, Black Ops 7 releases this year, which is supposed to have been dlc but turned into a premium game like how MW III 2022 was once dlc but made into a full game. Its story is supposed to be a direct sequel to black ops 2, which was set in 2025 lol
digit_zero
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,903
criteriondog said:
Verdansk's return is counted for in the article
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It's briefly mentioned in the article, but as for the numbers they are providing, it is all pre-Verdansk.
Biteren
Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,872
It felt like i was being throttled the last time i tried to grind out the season pass and the last event. But yeah, its its ridiculus with all the insane costumes running around. What was the point of this game being in the 90s?