‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ Scores Franchise’s Biggest-Ever Launch Weekend, Microsoft Gaming Says

“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6″ has set new opening day and weekend launch records for the 20-plus-year-old franchise with its Oct. 25 release, according to Microsoft Gaming.

Per data released by the Xbox owner Wednesday, “Black Ops 6” was the biggest “Call of Duty” three-day opening weekend ever in terms of total players, hours played and total matches. However, Microsoft did not disclose specific numbers for any of those “Black Ops 6” metrics, or comparable figures for previous “Call of Duty” games.

From Activision’s Treyarch and Raven studios, “Black Ops 6” is available across Xbox, PlayStation and PC and marks the first mainline “Call of Duty” game to be released since Microsoft closed its $76 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, the largest video game acquisition ever made, in October 2023.

“Black Ops 6” was available to Xbox’s Game Pass customers at launch as part of Microsoft’s push of its subscription service in its overall revenue strategy. The game was heavily marketed by Activision across social media, TV and live experiences ahead of its debut.

“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,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the company’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday. “Unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60 percent year-over-year.”

“Call of Duty” general manager Matt Cox added: “Thank you to our players around the world for making Black Ops 6 the biggest Call of Duty launch ever. Our goal from the start has been to bring this great game to as many players as possible wherever they are, however they play. Black Ops 6 is an amazing game, and the response from the Call of Duty community has been incredible. This is only the beginning. Nuketown is only days away and Season 1 is right around the corner. We’re just getting started.”

Set in an alternate history in 1991, “Black Ops 6” follows rogue operatives Troy Marshall and Frank Woods as they assemble a team of agents to hunt down Pantheon, a mysterious group that has infiltrated the CIA and targeted outsiders as traitors to the U.S. The game is also reintroducing the fan-favorite “Round-Based Zombies” mode to the franchise.