The release of a new Call of Duty game is almost always one of the best-selling titles in any given year. But since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 debuted on Game Pass on day one of its release, there was some question as to whether this would diminish the title’s impact and sales across Xbox Series X|S and other platforms. It’s too early to render a final judgment about that, but so far, one analyst says that Black Ops 6 wasn’t hurt at all by being on Game Pass.
“Call of Duty engagement following the release of Black Ops 6 can only be defined by the term ‘bonkers,'” Circana analyst Mat Piscatella wrote on Bluesky. “We’ve yet to see anything like it in our engagement tracking data… There’s been an ongoing debate about Game Pass and its impact on sales and it’s never been settled because… it depends. Sometimes it helps sales (especially through virality), sometimes it hurts. After two weeks, my take on this one is that it may not have helped, but it also sure didn’t hurt.”
According to Activision, Black Ops 6 had the highest opening weekend numbers for any game in the franchise among total players, total hours played, and total matches. Treyarch associate creative director Miles Leslie credited Game Pass for the resurgence in interest in the long-running franchise among lapsed players.
“We’ve gotten to the point now where Black Ops and Call of Duty have been around so long–I’ve been working on it for 16 years,” said Leslie. “And really the challenge for us is how do you bring along the fans that love Call of Duty, but how do you create an environment where you can welcome new fans in?”
One of the promises that Microsoft had to make in order to close its acquisition of Activision Blizzard was a deal to keep Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles for at least a decade. Activision hasn’t released its sales figures for Black Ops 6 yet, but putting it on Game Pass seems to have accomplished the company’s goals for the franchise. At least for now.
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