'Call Of Duty' Has Lost Nearly 80% Of Its Peak Player Counts Following 'Black Ops 6' Release As Recent Reviews Are "Mostly Negative"
Call of Duty has lost nearly 80% of its peak player counts since Activision released Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at the end of October.
Following the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Steam DB reported that the Call of Duty experience, which tracks Black Ops 6, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare II, and Warzone, hit a peak a peak player count of 315,334. That was the highest peak the game had seen since the free-to-play Warzone 2.0 released back in November 2022, where it hit an all-time peak of 491,670 concurrent players.
In the ensuing 2 months since Black Ops 6's release the peak player counts have rapidly declined. A month after the game released and the peak concurrent player count was at 185,507, a 41% decline. By December 25th it had fallen to 105,057, a 66.6% decline.
Finally, in its most recent 24-hour peak it only managed to hit 66,359 concurrent players. That’s a 78.9% decline from the peak when Black Ops 6 released.
The last time it was that low was just before Black Ops 6 released when it hit a peak concurrent of 68,421 on October 24, 2024.
Not only are players abandoning the game, but it players are sharing a ton of negative feedback about the game. On Steam the game currently has a rating of Mixed from All Reviews, but Recent Reviews are Mostly Negative.
Here’s what some players are saying:
One wrote, “AI is about to ruin AAA gaming permanently if Activision sets the standard here and now. Replacing voice actors because they want job security from having their own voices replicated with AI so they dont have to pay them is sickening. They fired core voice actors over this and replaced them with shoddy new actors (Samantha Maxis is the most notable ). You can see six fingered characters on a couple of in game screens which is a clear indicator for AI generated images, and who's to say thats where they draw the line?”
He added, “For the money they charge its ridiculous to cut corners and to treat voice talent and possibly Devs like expendable trash. I wont be spending any money on cosmetics or what have you until they sort this out. They ought to Luigi whoever allowed this to happen, seriously.”
Another wrote, “I really can't look past the endless amount of cosmetics. i dont even care that I suck at multiplayer. I get it - i'm unc status. but i don't particularly enjoy exploding into confetti or rainbows or a marijuana leaf when I die to a dragon esque fortnite looking skin. it just doesn't feel like call of duty anymore. I don't care about 30 specialist operators. I just want to play multiplayer as a nameless soldier, or play zombies as one of a memorable group of four cast members. i didn't touch the campaign so I can't discuss that. also apparently they're using AI for the art in the game which is crazy because this company has how much money? can't hire some more artists buddy?”
Weredragon wrote, “This game is monetized like a free mobile game. This game use AI for their artworks. This game have GARBAGE servers. This game crashes NON STOP. This game have a serious cheating issue. Please do not give money to these guys.”
“Using AI for artwork and voice acting while pricing the game at 60 quid is grim but not surprising for Activision. Top tier ♥♥♥♥♥ of the gaming industry,” wrote spud.
SqueezedLime wrote, “Game constantly crashing with DirectX. First the game kept crashing because of my OC graphics card (OC was very much stable as well, stress tested it like crazy). Now it is DirectX. DO NOT BUY. Not worth the headache.”
Another who recommended the game still bashed it for its lackluster multiplayer, “I won’t waste your time!
Campaign:10/10
Zombie mode:10/10
Multiplayer:3/10The maps are too small, and on some, you can get spawn-killed by a grenade even in ranked mode.
Overall:8/10
I don’t regret buying it.”
Another stated, “First new COD game I bought in a long time, and I'm regretful that I didn't keep that streak. It started off okay, but the obnoxious skins, multiplayer updates, and now the AI controversy ruined it. What can you expect from this franchise? It's going to dig a bigger hole than the one it's in now.”
“Cant believe i wasted my money on this trash,” wrote Buddha1331. “Aus Servers have been playing up for more then a month, every game has multiple packet loss spikes, along with the fact it often joins you overseas servers on 300 ping makes me believe that either Aus servers are already dying or the server fix is very very low priority. i shouldn't have to jump through hoops for a triple A game to work as advertised.”
Kel lambasted the game, “BO6 well deserves its current mostly negative review status. Campaign is fine, as usual it's only good for one playthrough then it's uninstalled.
MP is an SBMM riddled slog filled with terrible hitreg and cheaters. Zombies is beyond boring once you've experienced everything with little to no replayability.
”Was hoping Treyarch would bring the CoD series back from two years of back-to-back mid but holy hell did they fail at that and more, four years of development went into this slop and I cannot recommend even bothering to try it on a free weekend,” he concluded.
What do you make of recent reviews for the game being “mostly negative” and the player counts dropping around 80% since Black Ops 6’s release?
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