Every year, Activision puts out a new Call of Duty. And every year, shortly after that Call of Duty comes out, Activision shares some sort of celebratory announcement about how much money it made or how many people played. This year, a week has come and gone since the launch of Black Ops 7 without a peep from Activision about how it’s actually performed. This comes amid stiff competition from Battlefield 6 and a Metacritic score of just 69.
Does this mean Activision isn’t all that happy with Black Ops 7’s sales performance? Is the annualized blockbuster starting to slip after years of potential fan burnout?
As pointed out by Twitter user NerosCinema, a post celebrating 2022’s Modern Warfare II hailed it as “the number one Call of Duty launch of all time,” while 2023’s post said Modern Warfare III had the highest engagement in the new Modern Warfare trilogy.” Last year’s Black Ops 6 launch earned a celebratory post calling it the “biggest Call of Duty 2-day opening ever.” The November 17 Black Ops 7 post offers no such accolades, just that the team has seen “a great response” across “opening weekend.”
That’s a far cry from how Activision spun Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War‘s popularity back in 2020, just two days after it came out: “Friday’s release of Black Ops Cold War set a new record as the highest first day digital sales worldwide in franchise history.”
Asked for comment, Activision referred Kotaku back to its initial November 17 post.
Maybe it’s too soon for Activision to start celebrating—or maybe the tide has turned on the franchise, which was recently called out (again) for using generative AI for in-game art. The Game Business reported on November 21 that Black Ops 7’s weekend launch sales were 63 percent lower than Battlefield 6’s in Europe, and were down by more than 50 percent when compared to last year’s Black Ops 6.
Black Ops 7 certainly tries to deviate from last year’s installment, though the two games were developed in tandem. It’s technically a sequel to 2012’s Black Ops 2, and stars some Hollywood folks like Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us), Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), but its campaign takes so many big, absurd swings that it’s mostly leaving players bewildered.
Then there’s the fact that it’s up against Battlefield 6 this year, which was the best-selling game in October in the United States, and produced the “highest single month US physical and digital full game tracked dollar sales total in three years,” according to Circana’s director of game research, Mat Piscatella. The last game to sell that well? Modern Warfare II.
If Black Ops 7 isn’t the runaway hit Activision hoped it would be, maybe that means we can get a break from the Call of Duty Annual Release Hamster Wheel. Maybe the developers at Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven can take their time making something truly unique and special that redefines the series and defies expectations. Maybe they can fix the damn launcher and make it easier to download a game without two dozen extra packs.
Or maybe they just announce Call of Duty: Black Ops: Remastered: Revamped next year and everyone loses their minds. Can I even judge? I’m playing Black Ops 7 multiplayer right now…
