Black Ops 7 Officially Breaks a PlayStation Streak at the Worst Time Possible

Activision’s Call of Duty franchise has been a fixture of the gaming landscape for years, with its regular releases typically claiming some of the top spots in any given year’s bestseller lists. Even as critics of the series have complained about the increased shift into multiplayer at the expense of the story-centric campaigns that helped establish what the series was, the games have continued to be blockbuster hits. However, things have been amiss lately for the franchise, with Black Ops 7 stumbling out of the gate and struggling to pick up steam after a lackluster launch.

Gamers have been frustrated, critics have been harsh, and the overall player base for the shooter has been migrating to established rivals like Battlefield 6 or fresh competition like ARC Raiders. Amid all of these challenges, Black Ops 7 also just broke a long-running trend with the series that only further illustrates the precarious position the series is in. While it seems unlikely that Call of Duty faces any danger of being shuttered once and for all, this latest news doesn’t bode well for the state of the franchise.

Black Ops 7 Is The First COD In A Decade To Not Be A Top 5 PlayStation Game Of The Year

For the first time in a decade, Call of Duty has failed to be a part of the PlayStation Store’s top 5 downloads for a given year. Since 2015, when Call of Duty: Black Ops III was the top-selling game of the year through the PlayStation store, Call of Duty has remained a fixture of the PlayStation sales charts. However, Black Ops 7 was only able to achieve the #7 slot in 2025, falling behind direct competition like Battlefield 6 (which was ranked #2 on the sales chart) and games from entirely other genres like Forza Horizon 5 and NBA 2K26.

Being the seventh highest-selling game of the year is nothing to brush aside, especially considering that it holds that position for both US/CA and EU markets. However, it’s a far cry from the heights of the series, indicating that the franchise’s appeal has been at least dented, if not slowed completely. Especially after the massive success of Black Ops 6 in 2024, this drop is a major concern for one of Activision’s most successful franchises. The developer is already seemingly working to address the issue, including moving to a longer development cycle for new entries in established sub-franchises. In the world of gaming, old titans can stumble with a single rough release, and the damage might already be done.

What Does Black Ops 7’s Struggles Say About Call Of Duty’s Future

There’s no way Call of Duty is going anywhere. Just in terms of broad appeal, the brand recognition of the series is widespread enough that Activision would never want to shut down the franchise as a whole. However, it’s clear that the series needs to reorient itself, especially in light of the player base moving elsewhere. Critics noted how Black Ops 7 felt, at best, like a retread of earlier mechanics and approaches to the series. Fans have been even harsher, explaining the game’s dismal 1.6 user score on Metacritic at the time of this writing. The most important thing for the franchise’s future will be winning back players who ended up skipping out on this title or migrated to other titles.

Part of the problem might be the game’s inability to stick to a style, promising realistic execution but quickly embracing more outlandish gameplay inspired by franchises like Fallout. It might also stem somewhat from Black Ops 7‘s solo campaign, which has been widely lambasted by critics and players alike. Games like Modern Warfare 3 — whose remastered version in 2023 was a massive success for the company — benefited from both impressive multiplayer and a tightly constructed campaign, so putting more emphasis on both elements could help win back players who were left frustrated by the barebones single-player content in Black Ops 7.

Part of the problem may simply be that with a lot of competition out there, ranging from the likes of Battlefield 6 to free-to-play shooters like Fortnite, the refined multiplayer mode of Black Ops 7 isn’t enough of a singular selling point for gamers. It might make sense for Activision to keep that in mind with their next entry, making sure that the subsequent Call of Duty game has a compelling central narrative to draw players in before letting them loose into the multiplayer sandbox.

It may even benefit the series to take a small break and reorient its plans for the future, giving it more time to see how the genre is evolving and how best to carve out its own niche in the market. Call of Duty is still successful, and it still has plenty of loyal fans. However, Activision needs to be careful not to drive them away. The follow-up to Black Ops 7 is going to face a lot of scrutiny, with another stumble potentially becoming disastrous for the series. Black Ops 7 failing to hit the top five PlayStation games is a worrying sign and proof that something has to change behind the scenes if Call of Duty doesn’t want to go the way of countless other shooters over the years and become truly overshadowed by the competition.