Seeing Battlefield 6 go from over 700,000 peak concurrent players on Steam to barely scraping past 100,000 is certainly something, especially as ARC Raiders’ popularity increases. But it’s still far better than Call of Duty, which hit nearly 53,000 concurrent players in the past 24 hours on the platform.
Why is that a problem? The Call of Duty App doesn’t just include Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which launched last year to underwhelming reviews due to its campaign. It also tracks Black Ops 6, Warzone, the Modern Warfare series, and much more. Keep in mind that these player counts follow Holiday discounts and even a free week. The sad part is that this isn’t even the lowest in the past week, as it reached 39,015 peak concurrent players on January 8th.
Of course, none of this changes the fact that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped last November’s US sales charts (even if Battlefield 6 emerged as the top-selling premium game of 2026). Engagement with the app on consoles in the region was also as strong as ever, only lagging behind Fortnite and eking out ahead of Grand Theft Auto 5.
Nevertheless, Activision has pivoted significantly by announcing that it would no longer release back-to-back Modern Warfare and Black Ops titles. “We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.” Its developers have apparently been building the “next era of Call of Duty,” and judging by the current release cycle, it may be Modern Warfare 4.
In the meantime, check out our review for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 here. We gave it a five out of ten for the multiplayer (despite netcode and hit registration issues), and Zombies (despite the overtly safe gameplay loop). The campaign is an utter disaster, but at least Treyarch released an update to let you skip it and go straight to Endgame.
