By Activision and Microsoft’s counts, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s launch was the most successful in the series’ storied history. Slick gunplay, a great campaign, and, of course, its Xbox Game Pass inclusion all helped the game reach astonishing heights.
Unfortunately, the bubble seems to have well and truly burst, with multiple issues causing the game to lose almost 50 percent of its player count on Steam in the first two months.
Using SteamCharts for our analysis, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has lost 47 percent of its players since the game launched. In November 2024, Steam’s Call of Duty launcher, which includes Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone, was averaging 165,668 players at any given time. Over the last 30 days, it has averaged around 87,000 players, a huge drop.
For context, during its peak in November 2023, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was averaging around 103,126 players. This dropped to around 89,000 in January, only a six percent decrease. This shows Black Ops 6 is losing players at a much faster rate than its predecessor.
It’s worth noting that Black Ops 6’s peak was significantly higher than Modern Warfare 3’s, with over 60,000 more players playing during its honeymoon period, meaning it had further to fall, but the fact that Black Ops 6’s player count has seemingly dropped below Modern Warfare 3’s January average is likely to be a concern for Activision.
The almighty drop probably comes as no surprise to players as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been riddled with issues and complaints in the two months since it launched. Pay-to-win allegations have resurfaced, events have been met with mixed-to-poor reactions, expensive microtransactions have upset players, skill-based matchmaking has caused issues, AI artwork has plagued the title, and the maps have been called “some of the worst ever.” And that’s just scratching the surface.
