Call of Duty is so dead, it’s the number one franchise on Xbox Game Pass

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You’re hearing a lot of people online say that Call of Duty has lost its popularity and that no one is playing it anymore.

It’s hardly a shock, then, to hear this news – it’s about as predictable as the sun setting each evening.

Call of Duty was the most played game on Xbox Game Pass both in November and for the entire year of 2025. While not entirely surprising – this is the first full year Call of Duty has been available on the service – it’s still impressive to see such strong performance.

Call of Duty was the most popular franchise on Xbox Game Pass throughout 2025, both in terms of total players and hours played, following its November launch. Here’s to the Call of Duty community worldwide! Season 1 of Black Ops 7 and Call of Duty: Warzone is just beginning. (December 10, 2025)

Just to clarify, the “Call of Duty” numbers include players from the Call of Duty HQ app and its three connected games. Throughout most of 2025, these figures will primarily reflect activity in Warzone and the recently launched Black Ops 6, which had a very strong debut at the end of 2024.

The strong performance in November was largely due to Black Ops 7, surprisingly enough – even though very few people are actually playing it.

That wraps it up! The combined playtime and player count across the three games is really remarkable. It’s likely that some potential sales were offset by players choosing to access the games through a Game Pass subscription instead of purchasing them directly.

It’s clear that Black Ops 7 hasn’t launched as successfully as Activision and Microsoft expected. Their recent announcement that they’ll stop releasing Black Ops and Modern Warfare games every year seems to be an admission that players have been right all along about needing more time between releases.

Over the past decade of Call of Duty releases, the Black Ops and Modern Warfare series have dominated, accounting for seven out of ten games. With the anticipated release of Modern Warfare 4 in 2026, these two franchises will likely represent eight out of the last ten titles. It’s understandable that some players are starting to feel a bit tired of seeing the same series repeated so often.

While they’re currently the dominant force, a lot of fans are really excited about the potential new Call of Duty game reportedly being developed by Sledgehammer for 2027.

I’m seeing a lot of negativity around the new Call of Duty, Black Ops 7, and honestly, I think it’s a bit unfair. I’m really enjoying it, and I actually think it’s an improvement over Black Ops 6, even though I did prefer last year’s story. There’s just so much to do – tons of content and stuff to unlock. It definitely doesn’t feel ‘dead’ to me.

Now we need to deliver on our commitments and maintain our leading position. Only time will reveal if we succeed.

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2025-12-11 15:42