Black Ops 6 may become a turning point for the Call of Duty franchise, especially given the huge bet Microsoft has made on Activision Blizzard. So it is time to take a closer look at the game’s launch metrics.
The main CoD app (Call of Duty HQ) peaked at 306,460 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend (via SteamDB). The increase in player count was driven by the launch of Black Ops 6 on October 25.
It is worth noting that it is impossible to track the exact number of users who simultaneously played the latest game and its multiplayer specifically. While Black Ops 6 is sold as a standalone title, it is bundled with Call of Duty HQ as DLC, so SteamDB only shows CCU numbers for the main app, which also includes Warzone (free-to-play mode), MWII, and MWIII.
What we do know is that BO6 has set a new concurrent player record for any premium Call of Duty release since the launch of its hub app:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 — 306,460 CCU
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II — 263,174 CCU;
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III — 190,707 CCU.
The only time the main app saw a higher CCU count was during the launch of Warzone 2.0 in November 2022 when it peaked at 491,670 concurrent users, followed shortly by a free weekend (307.9k CCU).
Here are also some numbers for other Call of Duty games on Steam, which are not part of the main hub:
- Black Ops (multiplayer only) — 118.5k CCU;
- Modern Warfare 2 (multiplayer only) — 112.8k CCU;
- Black Ops III — 63.6k CCU;
- Black Ops — 63.3k CCU;
- Advanced Warfare (multiplayer only) — 35k CCU.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 currently has a “Mixed” rating on Valve’s platform, with 64% of the 3,412 reviews being positive. The majority of the warm comments focus on the single-player campaign, with many users also calling BO6 the most fun CoD experience in years. However, the criticism is aimed at bugs, crushes, and multiplayer-related issues, some of which apply to the hub app.
For comparison, both Modern Warfare II and III have “Mostly Negative” ratings, with 20% and 31% positive reviews, respectively.
Activision and Microsoft have yet to announce any figures for Black Ops 6, but it appears that the game’s reception has been great so far. It is also the first-ever Call of Duty game to be available on Game Pass at launch, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts subscriber numbers and other metrics.