Call of Duty is in a rough position with closed games and audience declines – what's next?
Blog Andrew Joseph 20 May , 2025 0
Call of Duty fans are still digesting the news that Activision is leaving Warzone mobile phonea game designed to bring the Grand Royals into a new era.
Activision took out Warzone Mobile from iOS and Android App stores last weekend, and the game's scope was “simplified” and that admission has not met expectations. Although the server will remain online for the time being, no new content or updates will be sent to the game and players will no longer be able to spend money.
“We are proud of the achievements of bringing Call of Duty: Warzone to mobile devices in a real way, but unfortunately, this hasn't met our expectations for mobile-first players for our PC and console audiences,” Activision said.
It's the cruel end of a game that is obviously struggling in the door. Warzone Mobile was launched on iOS and Android in March 2024 as a Warzone-specific “Call of Duty” mobile experience, giving Royale a battle of up to 120 players, as well as cross-progress with PC and Console Warzone, Modern Warfare 2 and 3, and later this year Black Ops 6.
IGN's Call of Duty Warzone Mobile Review Returned 8/10. We said: “Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile includes all the best elements of Warzone while accelerating and streamlining the game and using crossovers to make this a meaningful extension to the traditional experience.”
The hope of Activision is that Warzone Mobile will make a sensation in the competitive mobile shooter market, where a hugely successful Call of Duty mobile device developed by Tencent-owned Timi Studio Group has been established. Since its launch, 1 billion Mobile Summoning Calls have been downloaded, and revenue has been shared between Activision and Tencent. Warzone Mobile, on the other hand, is developed internally inside Activision, so whenever a player drops cash on a battle pass or cosmetics, the company receives a bigger pie.
But Warzone Mobile requires a phone that works better than Call of Duty phones, but it doesn't meet the expectations of Activision, and its development team narrowed down last September (September) Microsoft Wind Wiend layoffs encountered in gaming business.
Now, Call of Duty fans, especially those Have done it Playing Warzone Mobile, I sighed at the state of the game, which is actually a franchise.
“This game is too early and I want to be too greedy.” Redditor Maddafragg says. “As seen in Reddit videos, a lot of gameplay is not weird graphics, it can be seen that even if the game is playable, the device is hard to run it. The world of mobile games is cursed, and it is not only Warzone, but Warzone’s death.
“It turns out that mobile games need to be optimized on most devices to succeed, you can’t just adapt to high-end devices and want your game to succeed – no, it won’t,” he said. Added PieGeamorue.
“Greed is a dangerous thing. The activity is too greedy, and when they plan to kill CODM to support WZM, they basically make tens of millions of people against the game. It becomes 'US vs them' and Codm is more accessible to WZM than WZM, which is the loss – guaranteed loss.”
What's next for Call of Duty, and now seems to be in a tricky position? Earlier this month Game business Although Black Ops 6 launched a large product late last year, users after the Call of Duty series are “a sharper” than in recent years.
Here is a related summary:
…The reality is that despite a strong start, Call of Duty has been trying to attract players to the extent that they were in the past. According to Ampere, in March 2025, Call of Duty had 20.6 million players. This is still a big number, but slightly lower than in March 2024, with 20.8 million players and down in March 2023 with 22.4 million players.
The beloved Verdansk's return to Warzone does bring much-needed arm shots to the Royal Campaignbut with the end of the honeymoon, Cheating accused of rampantness once again dominates the narrativeeveryone's eyes are focused on Activision and this year's Call of Duty Games to see if the first-person shooter series that still has heads can reinvent itself.
Relatedly, there are many obvious data shooting videos that have been toured, showing the jet packs running on the walls, even working in Black Ops. This suggests that this year's Black OPS 7 will abandon Activision's “boots on the ground” to reminisce Black Operation 3.
They also added jet packs haha pic.twitter.com/zrfxlvfqkj
-Bikou (@kivikou) May 20, 2025
🚨‼ The mother wall running has been confirmed as bo7‼ ‼ 🚨🚨d
There is a wall in BO6. It is not clear whether Bo3 is left to try to enter the glitch through BO6 or whether it comes from Bo7 and stays in the BO6 file. @charlieintel @modernwarzone @dexerto pic.twitter.com/0fj0guieh– Peter (@viipeter_) May 19, 2025
Activision tells IGN's team to be busy and work in all kinds of jobs, so hopefully we can see the fruits as soon as possible. Microsoft's annual Xbox display cabinet is coming soon. Maybe Call of Duty will appear there. And, meanwhile, Call of Duty: Mobile is developing strongly, but, as we pointed out, it is not as profitable as Activision’s business, despite being bigger.
Activision Blizzard’s recent mobile struggle has also raised Microsoft’s doubts about the company’s own $69 billion acquisition, as Xbox boss Phil Phil Spencer has not secretly determined that part of the decision was inspired by Xbox’s lofty mobile ambitions (Activity Blizzard Owns King, the maker of the popular mobile game Candy Candy Crumper, King). Indeed, Microsoft plans to open its own app store in the lucrative mobile gaming space and use Apple and Google on Apple and Google.
Wesley is IGN's news director. Find him on Twitter via @wyp100. You can reach Wesley via [email protected] or secretly visit [email protected].