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

"Call of Duty is dead." "Nobody's playing that game." That's what they're saying on the internet, right?

And yet, here we are, with one of the least surprising pieces of news since scientists confirmed that night does indeed follow day.

Call of Duty was not only the number one on Xbox Game Pass for November, but Call of Duty is the number one game on Game Pass for 2025. I'm shocked, shocked! Well, not that shocked. This is the first full year of Call of Duty on Game Pass, and the result is what we'd expected.

Caveats, of course. Call of Duty refers to the Call of Duty HQ app which launches the three games which have contributed to the numbers. For most of 2025 the figures will consist of Warzone and Black Ops 6, with the latter, we know, having had a seriously impressive launch in late 2024.

November's success, you have to say will have been down to Black Ops 7 in large part. You know, that game nobody's playing?

So yeah, there we have it. The most hours played and the most number of players, even if it is technically across three titles. Still impressive, and you'd wager that some of those lost sales are down to folks subscribing to Game Pass and not buying the game outright.

Of course, none of this is to say Black Ops 7 has had the launch that anyone at Activision or Microsoft had hoped for. The recent messaging that they're no longer going to do back-to-back releases of Black Ops or Modern Warfare titles is at least an acknowledgment of what most of the community has been saying all along.

Out of the last ten Call of Duty games to launch up to this year, four have been Black Ops and three have been Modern Warfare. 2026 is expected to be Modern Warfare 4, which, on an updated rolling "last 10" will give us eight out of ten games from the two brands. Of course, we're getting a little fatigued on them.

They're obviously the biggest fish, but many of us are looking towards 2027 and the rumored all-new Sledgehammer-developed title with the most anticipation.

Nevertheless, Call of Duty is very much not dead, and honestly, Black Ops 7 is getting unnecessarily dumped on. It's better than Black Ops 6 in almost every aspect (though last year's campaign was definitely better), there's a ridiculous amount of content to play, stuff to unlock, and I know I'm enjoying it.

Now it's time to follow through on all the promises and keep the behemoth at the top. Only time will tell, though.

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