If you only read social media over the past few months, you would think that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was an unmitigated disaster. But as far as selling copies goes, it took the crown.
BO6 was the best-selling premium game in the United States for all of 2024, despite the fact that it only released at the end of October, according to Circana’s Mat Piscatella. This means that CoD’s streak of being the best-selling game in the US as far as dollar sales go continued for an unprecedented 16th straight year.
CoD’s community has been vocally upset over the state of the game for the past month-plus, citing hackers, bugs, and lag problems as issues that need fixing. Activision echoed this sentiment in a recent community post, confirming that it’s working to fix what ills the title and its free-to-play Warzone counterpart. The battle royale game had its upcoming season two content scaled back in favor of fixing bugs and working on quality-of-life changes.
But regardless of the state of the game right now, players just can’t stop buying CoD. And this 16-year streak continued in 2024 even with BO6 being available as a day-one launch title on Game Pass, meaning players did not have to purchase the full game to play it—but many did anyway. It was the top seller on PS5, and second-best seller on Xbox.
In the top five of best sellers in the US for 2024, BO6 beat out College Football 25, Helldivers 2, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, and NBA 2K25. Last year’s premium CoD title, Modern Warfare III, also cracked the top 10 to come in sixth place for the calendar year.
CoD was also the most-played game on Xbox in December 2024, and second-most played game on PS5 behind only Fortnite, so gamers are still logging in and actively playing even with the myriad of problems the game faces.
BO6’s season two will begin next week, hoping to inject some positive favor back into the community alongside those who continue to play the game. CoD’s player count on Steam has taken a dip, and top voices such as Scump have stated that the series has never “been in a worse spot.”
It’s worth noting that those who post on social media (and streamers alike) are the vocal minority. As CoD sells millions of copies each year, the vast majority of its player base are likely casual players who have no issue logging on and playing a few matches of multiplayer or battle royale, probably not even noticing the hackers that have been plaguing Ranked Play.
The situation has been exacerbated by the release of a tremendously popular multiplayer game like Marvel Rivals, which took the top spot on Steam in December, while CoD fell from third place to seventh, where it was even outranked by a newly released FPS, Delta Force. At the same time, the majority of CoD players are on console, and always have been.
It feels as though CoD has become such an ingrained part of pop culture that it will always sell copies, regardless of the quality of the game over its year of live service time. BO6 did launch to positive reviews, though, and only recently started to receive the bulk of its complaints as issues compounded.
If CoD is to ever be dethroned as the top-selling game in the US, it would be this year if Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in 2025. But that’s a whole different question.
