Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the biggest Call of Duty release ever, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday during the company’s fiscal first quarter 2025 earnings call. The latest installment of the popular first-person military shooter franchise set a record. on the first day of players, as unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were up more than 60 percent year-over-year for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Nadella said. Black Ops 6 was released on October 25 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.
The biggest launch of Call of Duty
Nadella, who reported positive first-quarter results for Microsoft to investors — a 14 percent year-over-year jump in profit thanks to growth in cloud technology — also confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is launching on Xbox Game Pass. set a launch day subscriber record for a service title. “This speaks to our strategy to meet gamers where they are, allowing them to play more games on the screens they spend their time on.” the Microsoft CEO said during the call.
During the conference, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood also spoke about the launch of Black Ops 6. “There are two things about the launch that are different from the launch of Call of Duty a year ago, where revenue was mostly recognized in the quarter of purchase,” said Hood. “First, the game is available through Game Pass, so for players who play through Game Pass, subscription revenue is recognized over time. Second, the game requires an online connection, so even for players who purchase a stand-alone game, revenue recognition will also occur over time.”
However, the outlook for Microsoft’s gaming division was not so optimistic. Hood said the company expects gaming revenue to fall into the high single digits due to hardware. “We expect revenue growth from Xbox content and services to be relatively flat,” she added.
Black Ops 6 became the first Call of Duty game to be released on the first day of Game Pass. Although sales figures are not available, the game has been successfully launched on various platforms. Activision confirmed Thursday that the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 set new opening day and opening weekend records, surpassing the franchise’s records for player count, hours played and total matches.
According to SteamDB charts, the game has attracted a significant number of players on Steam. The Call of Duty app, required to access Black Ops 6 content, has peaked at over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam since the game’s launch. At the time of writing, the game has more than 102,000 players.