Battlefield 6 is on the horizon, and it looks absolutely fantastic.
Following the relative disappointment of Battlefield 2042, DICE and EA have gone back to the drawing board a bit for Battlefield 6, and doubled down on everything that made the franchise so beloved in the first place. We're seeing the return of a more class-based structure, we're seeing a return to grounded contemporary warfare with highly destructible environments. And we've heard promises to keep Battlefield 6 skins grounded and immersive — the latter point of which has been a bit of a focal point.
Battlefield 6 will launch on October 10, 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Windows PC, and will hopefully be a return to form for the franchise. It comes at a point where discourse around its chief military shooter competitor, Call of Duty, becomes increasingly fractured.
For years, Call of Duty has been injecting the wackiest and most cartoony skins imaginable into the game, eroding immersion to court funds from users keen to spend as much as possible. The degradation of the experience speaks for itself, but still, millions are fine with it — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the most successful entry ever in the franchise.
But could change be on the horizon?
I recently browsed some social and search stats for Call of Duty and Battlefield, and it certainly seems like shooter fans are more interested than usual in what EA has to offer.
Battlefield overtakes Call of Duty in search, but only briefly
Web search still drives a huge portion of internet traffic, although more and more of it is going over to social media and even AI platforms like ChatGPT. Still, it's a good indicator of trends, and generally mirrors fairly closely what people are searching for on TikTok and other platforms as well.
In the above, you can see how Battlefield-oriented search terms supplanted Call of Duty over the past month, with one spike during the Battlefield 6 initial teaser and then surpassing Call of Duty entirely after Battlefield 6 was revealed. The trends are mirrored fairly nicely on YouTube as well, with Call of Duty representing a consistent flat line, with Battlefield spiking up above Call of Duty across subsequent trailer drops.
Call of Duty naturally has many, many different versions right now. With Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Mobile, and so on. But how does Battlefield 6 stack up specifically against Call of Duty: Black Ops 7?
Well, Black Ops 7 and other associated search terms barely register as a blip on search traffic, aside from a small peak during the initial teaser trailer Microsoft dropped during the Xbox Showcase 2025. Microsoft and Activision have been pretty low key with marketing Black Ops 7 so far, with a full reveal pending at Gamescom 2025.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 remains the top game-specific search term for Call of Duty, but Call of Duty: Mobile and previous entries also represent a huge portion of search traffic relating to the franchise.
In any case, Battlefield 6 has a big lead over Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Black Ops 6 in search right now. But that might change come Gamescom 2025.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's YouTube teaser trailer has 40 million views as of writing, with almost two months of views under its belt. It has a 1.5:1 like to dislike ratio, however, which represents how split the userbase is over the game's direction.
The discourse around Call of Duty's weird skins, pop-culture tie-ins, and egregious celebrity cameos has many gamers clamoring for something more grounded. Battlefield 6 has seized upon this to note it will keep its skins and cosmetics grounded in in-universe reality.
Battlefield 6's YouTube multiplayer reveal has 9.2 million views after ten days, and the multiplayer trailer has 4.3 million after 3 days. Crucially, both trailers have far more positive like to dislike ratios on YouTube than Call of Duty's, although, the likes and dislikes rarely indicate how well a game is going to actually perform at retail. Indeed, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare had one of the most disliked trailers of all time, but the game still sold over 12 million copies during its lifetime and was one of the best selling titles of 2016.
It'll be interesting to run comparisons again when Call of Duty drops its multiplayer trailers during Gamescom 2025.
Can Battlefield take on Call of Duty?
It's a tale as old as time. Or well, at least for around a couple of decades or so. Can something, anything dethrone Call of Duty?
Call of Duty has essentially become an annualized ritual over time, with its fluid motion and addictive progression systems entertaining tens of millions of gamers year in, year out, without fail, for many years. Many "CoD killers" have come and gone over the years, but the only epic AAA military shooter that ever seemed to have a serious chance was Battlefield.
I know full well how different Call of Duty and Battlefield are when it boils down to it. Battlefield has a more tactical, squad-oriented edge in general across a huge and open epic scale, and Call of Duty is more fast paced, getting you into the action far more quickly. But still, they both occupy a very similar niche, and have significant time investment requirements when it comes to unlocking guns and the like.
I'm sure many will dedicate to both Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 this holiday season, myself included (especially since the latter will be on Xbox Game Pass at launch). But, nothing stays fashionable forever. Call of Duty has become renowned for reinventing itself, both creating and following trends. But I feel like its recent sprint into neon-splattered Fortnite-inspired skins and crossovers has contributed to growing fatigue for the franchise.
I doubt Battlefield 6, even if it's absolutely perfect, can change the habits of millions who enjoy Call of Duty for exactly what it is. But I would settle for Battlefield giving Call of Duty a kick up the rear at the very least — and help it to rediscover what made Call of Duty so popular in the first place. Competition is good.
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