The EU has found that Call of Duty is a major factor when gamers choose to buy either an Xbox or a PlayStation.
As always, the EU shared these findings in their decision to approve Microsoft’s deal with Activision. They made this call after looking at data shared by both Sony and Microsoft, and also after taking their arguments about this data into consideration.
If you think all this means is that gamers prefer PlayStation over Xbox because of Call of Duty, you would be wrong. There are also gamers that buy Xboxes, with the intention to buy Call of Duty on them. This data serves to give us context that console fanboys don’t have to substantiate their squabbling over their favorite brands. The following is a summary of paragraphs 370 and 371 in the document, found on pages 85 to 86.
Microsoft shared data revealing that “in the period between 2016 and 2022, [20-30]% of gamers played the franchise within a month of activating their new Xbox console.” Microsoft also had data revealing that a significant number of Xbox gamers choose to play Call of Duty on their Xboxes after activating an Xbox. In fact, Fortnite is only slight above Call of Duty in this regard. Both Fortnite and Call of Duty make about 10 to 20 % of the number of gamers monitored in this one survey.
Notably, all the other games that Xbox players choose to play first are not classified as shooters. These other games are FIFA (10-20 %), Minecraft (5-10 %) GTA (5-10 %) and NBA 2K (0-5%). Obviously, we gamers know that GTA has shooter mechanics in it as well, but for the purposes of this survey, it is significantly differentiated from Fortnite and Call of Duty.
On the other hand, Sony did not clear their data for public consumption. The EU isn’t able to share as much information on this end as they did with Microsoft, but let’s review what we can.
Sony cited a 2021 study that labels Call of Duty as one of the first games PlayStation owners play on the first day that they purchase their consoles. Call of Duty is ranked higher in this study than Fortnite or Apex Legends. The study also revealed “that a substantial share of PlayStation gamers spend a significant amount of their time playing Call of Duty within 4 weeks of a new title release. “
Sony also shared that Call of Duty outranks Fortnite, Apex Legends, Battlefield, and other AAA shooter franchises, when it comes to total engagement hours on PlayStation, within the first 4 weeks of a new title released in each respective franchise. This comes from a study of PlayStation consumers made from 2017 to 2021.
Now, Microsoft also argued that adding Call of Duty Warzone to these studies can overstate the importance of Call of Duty. In Microsoft’s words, “many gamers may decide to play free-to-play games first when they purchase a new console because they do not have a large library of games yet or because they are free.”
Microsoft also argued that if you removed free-to-play titles in the study, Call of Duty’s share would decrease. The EU noted that even if they followed Microsoft’s logic and removed free-to-play titles in their study, “Call of Duty would remain the most played AAA shooter game franchise on the first day of the users’ console purchase.”
The European Commission ultimately decided not to follow Microsoft’s recommendation. They found there was no particular argument that compelled such a move. Furthermore, free-to-play shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends also “generate a meaningful number of engagement hours on PlayStation and are relevant to the competitive dynamics in AAA shooter genre.”
You will note that Microsoft couldn’t sway the EU on these points, but gained their approval in the end. Microsoft, of course, was simply swaying the regulator on all possible points to be favorable to their side.
What’s important to us is what it says about how loyal Call of Duty players are in general. And, yes, even if some gamers want to pretend they don’t count, there are a significant number of Call of Duty players who also prefer Xbox on PlayStation. That Xbox Call of Duty fanbase may end up growing in the next few years, but it wasn’t like they were not always there all along.
