Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has become the biggest Call of Duty release ever, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday at the company’s first-quarter earnings call for FY 2025. The latest instalment in the popular first-person military shooter franchise set a record for day one players as unit sales on both PlayStation and Steam were up over 60 percent year-over-year compared to last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Nadella said. Black Ops 6 launched October 25 across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.
Biggest Call of Duty Launch Ever
Nadella, who reported upbeat first-quarter results for Microsoft — with a 14 percent YoY jump in operating income on the back of cloud growth — to investors at the earnings call, also confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launching on Xbox Game Pass had set a record for subscriber additions on launch day for a title on the service. “This speaks to our strategy of meeting gamers where they are by enabling them to play more games across the screens they spend their time on.” the Micrsoft CEO said during the call.
At the earnings call, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood also weighed in on Black Ops 6 launch. “There are two things about the launch that are different than the Call of Duty launch a year ago where revenue was mostly recognized in the quarter of purchase,” Hood said. “First, the game is available on Game Pass so for players who play through Game Pass, the subscription revenue is recognized over time. Second, the game requires an online connection to play so even for players who purchase the standalone game, revenue recognition will also occur ratably over time.”
The outlook for Microsoft’s overall gaming division, however, wasn’t as upbeat. Hood said the company expected gaming revenue to decline in the high single digits due to hardware. “We expect Xbox content and services revenue growth to be relatively flat,” she added.
Black Ops 6 became the first Call of Duty title to launch on Game Pass day one. While unit sales figures are unavailable, the game has had a successful launch across platforms. Activision confirmed Thursday that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch had set new records for day one and opening weekend, topping franchise figures for total players, hours played and total matches.
The game has attracted a sizeable player base on Steam, according to SteamDB charts. The Call of Duty app, required to access Black Ops 6 content, has seen a peak of over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam since the game launched. Over 102,000 players are in the game at the time of writing.