According to The Game Business, Black Ops 6 performed significantly better at launch than Modern Warfare 3, which disappointed across various metrics. Player numbers were initially high, substantially boosting Game Pass revenue, but later results were mixed.

For the first time in years, the audience abruptly stopped playing Call of Duty post-launch – partly due to Game Pass, as players tried it and left. Meanwhile, BO6 itself failed to devise ways to retain players in-game, causing active users to drop from 22.4 million in 2022 to 20.8 million in March 2023, then 20.6 million in March 2025.

Ultimately, the Call of Duty team failed to capitalize on this record-breaking launch. Activision saw a disappointing decline from historic highs to metrics now underperforming previous years’ monthly active users. It remains unclear whether Game Pass profited from this or successfully retained new audiences to explore other catalog games.

Whether the next game will alter its distribution model remains unknown. Meanwhile, additional details surfaced: insider GhostOfHope recently reported on battle pass modifications in the upcoming CoD. They claimed timed game modes would be locked behind a paywall—though another insider, CharlieIntel, denied this statement.

Main image: wallpapercave.com

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