Despite Sales Woes, Call of Duty Dominates Game Pass in 2025

It’s been a turbulent year for the Call of Duty franchise, but a new announcement from Microsoft proves that the brand remains an absolute powerhouse on their subscription service.

The official Xbox Game Pass account announced that the Call of Duty franchise was the number one franchise on Game Pass for 2025 in two key categories: total players and total hours played. This success was also evident in November, the month of the Black Ops 7 launch, where it was the number one franchise overall.

 

The Mixed Message

The timing of this announcement is particularly interesting because it follows a very frank statement from Activision earlier this week.

Activision acknowledged that Black Ops 7, the sequel to Black Ops 6, fell short of the publisher’s own expectations. They made a major pledge to address the community's concerns by promising to refrain from future back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games.

"We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games," the statement read. "The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year. We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental".

The Competition is Real

The Game Pass dominance comes despite significant criticism and flagging sales figures for Black Ops 7. At least one video game analyst openly criticized Microsoft, blaming the disappointing performance on creative issues, "burnout," and the use of "AI slop". In Europe, Black Ops 7's opening week sales were reportedly 63% lower than those of Battlefield 6.

The real question remains whether Call of Duty can maintain its long-held title as the top-selling franchise of the year. EA's Battlefield 6 has proven to be an incredibly strong challenger.

• As of early November, Battlefield 6 had sold 10 million copies across all platforms.

• Battlefield 6 also set a new franchise record, selling over seven million units in just three days.

• The game debuted as the best-selling game of 2025 in the US as of late November.

Despite Call of Duty's massive engagement on Game Pass, the franchise hasn't been beaten as the top-selling shooter since 2006. Whether that streak continues or is broken by Battlefield 6 remains to be seen.

What do you think is a bigger factor in Call of Duty's success: the sheer volume of players from Game Pass, or its perennial sales strength?