Microsoft has officially claimed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a record-breaking success for the company, and even within its own franchise.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella himself broached the topic in the company’s latest quarterly earnings call.
In Nadella’s words:
“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.
And unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year-over-year. This speaks to our strategy of meeting gamers where they are by enabling them to play more games across the screens they spend their time on.”
Microsoft also stated that Activision Blizzard increased Microsoft Gaming’s revenue by 43 %, in the last three months from July to September 2024. That is incorporated into the 61 % increase in content and services revenue, which more than makes up for Xbox hardware sales declining 29 % year over year.
We realize this topic is set to be the next discourse among console gamers, and we would want to keep our readers informed as best as possible. You may note that Microsoft did not disclose any actual numbers in their report and have mostly hidden away the specific figures in their reports.
That’s a lesson learned for the game company, as they don’t want their choices, as well as their individual game studios and employees, to be subject to the scrutiny of gamers.
Fans and haters alike may feel they know what Microsoft should do and think their opinions are that important, but this was Microsoft choosing to bet on themselves and their decisions. In this specific case, we aren’t sure that even the most visible and popular of content creators can convince them that they were wrong.
While we don’t have official numbers we can share, we can share TrueAchievements’ metrics. Based on data gathering with analytics company GameInsights, Xbox player count rose to 159 % during the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last Friday. They can’t quantify how much of that percentage were Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players, but it’s still useful information.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s success can be easily attributed to several factors; expectations for this title were sky high, as both the return of Black Ops and the longest Call of Duty in development. Microsoft also spent huge on advertising, and the fact that it was Microsoft’s big debut as Call of Duty’s publisher also drove interest.
Moving forward, Microsoft now faces the challenge of maintaining Call of Duty in the long term. They probably can’t tout such huge growth forever, and it might even stop as soon as next year. But the company seems to be more than capable of making it the huge success that will make their gigantic investment worthwhile.
