Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 had a “bad” launch in Europe, selling 63% less than Battlefield 6, but there's an important context to consider

performance Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is starting to come into the spotlight, and sales figures suggest it's more than just a struggle against rival shooters Battlefield 6and last year’s black ops 6.

gaming business According to reports, compared with the blockbuster “Battlefield 6”, the first week sales of “Black Ops 7” in Europe dropped by 63% during the same release period of various shooting games. The Game Business said that compared with “Black Ops 6”, sales of “Black Ops 7” also dropped by more than 50%.

When discussing Black Ops 7 sales, there's an important context that must be considered. For example, Black Ops 7 is sold in various online stores, so it is difficult to get data from just one store (such as Steam) and use it to judge the success of the game (for example, Call of Duty is released on Battle.net).

Of course, like all Microsoft games, Black Ops 7 launches on Game Pass on day one. Downloads through the subscription service aren't tracked here, and Microsoft hasn't announced any major upgrades to Game Pass due to the launch of Black Ops 7. From what we can tell, Black Ops 7 hits its target when it comes to Game Pass subscriptions. What kind of success is Call of Duty seeing today in the context of Game Pass?

At the same time, Steam's concurrency situation is also very good, and the launch of “Black Ops 7” seems to be mediocre compared to “Black Ops 6”. Last year, the launch of Black Ops 6 pushed the number of players of the Call of Duty app on Steam to a peak of 315,000. Black Ops 7 increases the number of concurrent calls for Call of Duty applications to just over 100,000. But considering neither Microsoft nor Sony discloses player numbers, Steam doesn't paint a complete picture of the game's player base.

Of course, Black Ops 7 has a strong challenger from Battlefield 6 this year, and at least at launch, the tide does seem to have turned. “Battlefield 6” achieved the largest opening in the history of the “Battlefield” series, selling more than 7 million copies in just three days. It's even more surprising that Microsoft (or Activision Blizzard) hasn't released sales figures for Black Ops 7, nor player numbers, nor even vague engagement statistics. Last week, Activision released a statement thanking players for the “tremendous response” to the game, presumably more about Multiplayer compared to zombies Activity.

Thank you to our community and developers. this is just the beginning #blackops7 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dWDt6Jvpx0

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) November 17, 2025

More brutal competition is the breakthrough blow Arclight Guidealso performed very well. Since its launch in late October 2025, Embark Studios' extraction shooter has sold over 4 million copies worldwide and peaked at over 700,000 concurrent players across all platforms. Arc Raiders Steam concurrent users are actually growing, indicating that sales are still growing steadily.

All in all, Black Ops 7's launch was “terrible” Gaming CEO Chris Derling posted on social media:. Oh, and the numbers that were down over 50% in Black Ops 6 were actually down over 60%. Interestingly, there's definitely a feeling among some Call of Duty players that Battlefield 6 and later Arclight Raiders stole Black Ops 7's thunder. Getting ahead of Black Ops 7 is crucial to Battlefield 6, and many Call of Duty fans jumped ship and skipped Black Ops 7 as a result. But it's important to remember that Call of Duty is still a behemoth in the gaming world, regularly topping player count charts, and it's experienced sales disappointments before (Vanguard and Infinite Warfare say hello). All eyes are on November's U.S. sales figures, where we hope to get more evidence on Black Ops 7's domestic sales performance.

Thoughts now turn to Call of Duty in 2026. It seems unlikely that Microsoft and Activision will give the annual franchise a year off, so will we see another Modern Warfare game? Return to World War II? Or something completely different? The threat of GTA 6's November 2026 release date casts a pall over Call of Duty and every other game that dares to compete with it next yearThings aren't going to get any easier for Activision.

Wesley is IGN News Director. Find him on Twitter: @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or privately at [email protected].