Call Of Duty starts in 2026 with an all-time low maximum player count

Call of Duty had a lot to prove in 2025. Not only did it compete with Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders, but it also had the unenviable job of recovering from the Black Ops 6 controversy after launch. Moving away from the silly cartoon skins was a step in the right direction, but the quirky co-op campaign and AI calling cards immediately filled what little goodwill Treyarch had regained.

And we're back to crossovers with Fallout.

Even with free weekends, 50 percent discounts, and the best Zombies mode in over a decade, Activision couldn't salvage last year's disappointment. Launcher, including Black Ops 7, Warzone, and Black Ops 6 now holds a 24-hour peak of just 52,632 players, one of the lowest in its history.

To put it into perspective, Call of Duty is now 44th on the Steam charts, behind Battlefield 6 – which is also hemorrhaging players – VRChat, Dead by Daylight, Rainbow Six Siege X, Team Fortress 2, Elden Ring Nightreign, Marvel Rivals and of course Arc Raiders.

Christmas did little to help Black Ops 7; In fact, the game continued to lose players

Call of Duty launcher peak players graph shows steady decline until 2026.

There is usually an influx of new players during the holidays; that's why Activision is asking us to go easy on Christmas noobs. However, the game actually tanked in December – just a month after launch – and dropped to a low of 43,569 players. While today's peak is slightly higher, it is part of a much clearer decline, suggesting that interest in the series is at an all-time low since 2019.

Future seasons may give Black Ops 7 a new lease on life, but with post-launch content no longer able to pull players in, that seems unlikely. It's up to this year's Call of Duty to win the community back, but this time Infinity Ward is competing with GTA 6, which is set to be one of the biggest launches in the history of the medium.

Black Ops 7 already had a lot to prove: Modern Warfare 4 has a bottomless pit to climb out of.