Ouch
- by Sammy Barker
According to GSD sales data for Europe – which covers both physical and digital game sales across a number of key countries, including France, Germany, and the UK – Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is enduring a difficult launch.
The reports suggests that its debut week is an eye-popping 63% below Battlefield 6, and at least 50% down compared to last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
While it was still inevitably the best-selling game for the week ending 16th November, these will be devastating numbers for Activision, who previously insinuated the franchise is “too big to fail”.
Obviously, we still need worldwide numbers, but we know on Steam the game has peaked with significantly lower concurrent players than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the publisher’s own statement on the launch avoided mentioning any kind of performance indicators at all.
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All eyes will now be on the US, and whether Black Ops 7 has performed better there. We know Battlefield 6 has been a monstrous success already in America, so it’s going to be interesting to see whether Call of Duty can catch up.
The big worry for Activision is that it won’t have a gimme in 2026 either: GTA 6 is due out on 19th November, and even if next year’s Call of Duty game launches earlier than usual, the Rockstar release is going to suck a lot of air out of the room.
At this point, we’d expect heavy discounting of Black Ops 7 over the Christmas period, because the publisher’s going to need to try to do something to turn this around.
European Top 10 Unit Sales (Week Ending 16th November)
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (Activision)
2. Anno 117: Pax Romana (Ubisoft)
3. EA Sports FC 26 (EA)
4. Battlefield 6 (EA)
5. Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Nintendo) *
6. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
7. Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
8. Ghost of Yotei (Sony)
9. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
10. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Deep Silver)
European Top 10 Revenue (Week Ending 16th November)
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (Activision)
2. Anno 117: Pax Romana (Ubisoft)
3. EA Sports FC 26 (EA)
4. Battlefield 6 (EA)
5. Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Nintendo)*
6. Ghost of Yotei (Sony)
7. Football Manager 26 (Sega)
8. Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) *
9. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Deep Silver)
10. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
* Digital data unavailable
[source thegamebusiness.com]
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.
