PS5 Dominates UK Black Ops 6 Sales, As Game Pass Causes Xbox Share to Collapse | Push Square

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The sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were always going to be absolutely fascinating because Microsoft has tampered with the franchise’s tried-and-trusted business model.

Traditionally, the series has relied on strong full-price sales, and then has enjoyed long-tail success through microtransactions released throughout the year. This year is different, however, as the Xbox maker has made the unprecedented decision to include the first-person shooter in Xbox Game Pass.

Our first indication of the impact this may have had emerged as part of the UK physical games charts, where PlayStation accounted for 88 per cent of the copies sold. Of course, with more and more consumers switching to digital, this only provided a very small portion of the overall picture.

Now we have digital data for Britain as well, as shared by Chris Dring on the Games Industry.biz Microcast – and it paints an interesting picture.

Gulf in class

Compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 3, sales of Black Ops 6 are up 30 per cent on PS5 and down “two thirds” on Xbox. Across all platforms, both physical and digital, PlayStation accounts for almost 75 per cent of the sales in the UK.

In total, sales of Black Ops 6 are down 15 per cent compared to Modern Warfare 3 and 46 per cent compared to Modern Warfare 2. As Dring notes, it’s important to incorporate Modern Warfare 2 into the picture because Modern Warfare 3 reviewed poorly and was generally considered a weak launch for the franchise.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Xbox Game Pass subscribers have seen a significant uptick as a result of Black Ops 6’s inclusion, and whether members stick around long enough to buy microtransactions.

Either way, with PlayStation accounting for close to 75 per cent of the total sales, and its share actually increasing despite the platform losing marketing rights, Sony will see these results as an enormous win. We’ll now await further information from America and the rest of Europe to see what happened there.

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