Call of Duty: Vanguard has been setting records, just not the records that publisher Activision would have hoped. Vanguard has broken most of the records for how badly the game has sold when compared to the rest of the series. At launch, it was the worst-selling Call of Duty game in 14 years.
To find out why, the folks over at gamesindustry.biz conducted a poll with help from EGX and PAX. They asked 671 gamers in the UK and US whether they had purchased a Call of Duty game in the last five years. Of those 671, 284 said that they had. Of that 284, just 59 purchased Call of Duty: Vanguard. That’s 21% of gamers who have bought a previous Call of Duty game in the last five years.
The 79% who did not purchase Vanguard were then asked why they decided not to purchase the game. 55% of the respondents said they were too busy playing other games while 14% said they were playing the free version of Call of Duty, Warzone, instead.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, particularly to those who have been calling for an end to the yearly Call of Duty games, the second biggest reason was that the gamers were fatigued with Call of Duty. “I’ve played too much Call of Duty” was a reason listed by 34% of respondents.
Interestingly, other reasons that are often cited loudly in the community weren’t reflected in the poll answers. Due to the recent controversies with Activision’s work culture, many people had been calling for gamers to boycott the publisher as a whole. However, not buying Vanguard because of Activision was a reason for just 6% of respondents. Similarly, the Vanguard single-player was criticized in reviews and by gamers after release but that was a reason for only 2% of respondents. This suggests that Activision knows the single-player doesn’t matter to Call of Duty players.
Two of the other biggest reasons were the WWII setting and the reviews for the game. Those scored 24% and 20% respectively. Perhaps this will be the end of the WWII setting for a few more years.
To see the full graph with all of the results, check out gamesindustry.biz at the source below.