Black Ops 6 might be the biggest Call of Duty release ever

digitaltrends.com:

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is on track to be the most successful Call of Duty release in the franchise’s history thanks to a record-breaking launch, according to Activision and Microsoft.

The companies revealed that Black Ops 6 had the biggest three-day opening for the series by many metrics. It had the most players, most hours played, and the most total matches, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter). The game also got a shout-out during Microsoft’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.

“Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the call (as reported by Variety). “Unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year-over-year.”

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While no official numbers have been released, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella confirmed that the launch was indeed huge. He wrote that three days after launch, 52% of all active Xbox Series X/S players and 34% of active PlayStation 5 players launched into Call of Duty HQ, the series’ launcher. “Both were all-time highs for Call of Duty HQ,” Piscatella said, adding that this is “bonkers engagement.”

Black Ops 6 is the first Call of Duty game released following Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was finalized last October. It’s not the first in the series to hit Xbox Game Pass (that would be 2023’s Modern Warfare 3), but it’s the first to launch day one to the service. Natella touted briefly about how good the game has been for Game Pass, which Piscatella confirms.

“Supporting data points are beginning to suggest that, yes, coming to Game Pass very likely helped