Facepalm: Black Ops 7 launched to significant hype among Call of Duty fans earlier this year, but things have gone downhill since. According to a new report, the game has been losing momentum in recent weeks, with both sales and player counts dropping sharply compared to last year's Black Ops 6.
According to data shared by Alinea Analytics with GamesIndustry.biz, the latest title in the CoD franchise sold only 401,000 copies on Steam in its first 26 days – an 82 percent drop from Black Ops 6's 2.3 million sales over the same period last year.
Even more concerning, Black Ops 7 has been steadily losing its active player base. According to Video Game Insights, the game's peak daily concurrent player numbers during its launch period are significantly lower than those of Black Ops 6 in 2024 and Modern Warfare 2 in 2022.
The data further suggests that the number of daily active players across the overall CoD franchise on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox fell to 18 million last month, a 50 percent decline from the 36 million recorded by Black Ops 6 in December 2024.
Steam statistics also appear to support these findings. According to the platform, Black Ops 7's concurrent player count sits between 50,000 and 100,000 – a steep drop from the roughly 300,000 concurrent Black Ops 6 players during the same period last year. It also represents an 80 percent decline from the post-Covid peak of Modern Warfare 2.
Activision has acknowledged that Black Ops 7 sales fell short of expectations and has promised to implement several changes to improve gameplay and reduce player fatigue. As part of this effort, the company says it will no longer release back-to-back Modern Warfare or Black Ops sequels, following two consecutive Modern Warfare launches in 2022 and 2023 and two Black Ops releases in 2024 and 2025.
Activision also outlined several immediate steps to make Black Ops 7 more accessible to players. To start, the company will offer free trials for both the multiplayer and Zombies modes next week, allowing players to "experience the game firsthand." Additionally, Activision has committed to providing "unprecedented season support" in an effort to improve the game's reception and rebuild momentum among the player base.