Black Ops 7 Faces Sales Challenges

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 hasn’t quite matched the sales success of 2024’s Black Ops 6, and new data from Circana sheds light on its performance. While Black Ops 7 claimed the title of the best-selling game in North America for November, the franchise saw a notable decline in full-game dollar sales compared to November 2024. Black Ops 6 launched in October of the previous year. Despite this dip, it’s impressive that this marks the 18th consecutive year a new Call of Duty title has debuted at No. 1 in its launch month, a streak that began with 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War. Currently, Black Ops 7 ranks as the seventh best-selling game of 2025, with EA’s Battlefield 6 holding the top spot for the year. In November, the top five games included Black Ops 7 at No. 1, followed by Battlefield 6, NBA 2K26, Madden NFL 26, and EA Sports FC 26.

However, the Circana report only captures part of the picture regarding Black Ops 7’s sales, as it focuses solely on North American figures. The game is also available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, which likely impacts full-game sales. For Black Ops 6, estimates suggested Activision missed out on around $300 million in revenue due to Game Pass. Microsoft likely benefited as well, gaining new subscribers and increased engagement. Overall, the Call of Duty franchise is set to finish 2025 as the top franchise on Xbox Game Pass. In related news, Activision has announced it will no longer release games in the same sub-series, like Modern Warfare or Black Ops, in consecutive years. There are rumors that the 2026 installment will be Modern Warfare 4, developed by Infinity Ward, though this has yet to be confirmed.