Black Ops 7 Sets an Unfortunate Record for the Call of Duty Series

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was meant to be another major hit for Activision, but the game is floundering on Steam. Co-developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision, Black Ops 7 was coming out in the aftermath of Black Ops 6‘s massive success last year. Following its global release on November 14, however, Black Ops 7 has been struggling to hit the same heights.

The mix of a disgruntled fanbase, strong competition, and tepid reviews all seems to have played a factor, but the end result is still the same — Black Ops 7 has been underperforming on Steam, especially in comparison to other recent entries in the series. It has even set an unfortunate record for the franchise in the modern era.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 Had The Franchise’s Worst Steam Debut In Years

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is struggling with players, leading to the franchise’s worst Steam debut in the modern era. Following the largely positive success of 2024’s Black Ops 6, expectations were high for the newest entry in the Call of Duty series. However, the game received a more tepid response from critics, only scoring a 71 Metacritic score compared to Black Ops 6‘s 82. The fan reception has also been far more dire for the new release, criticizing the game’s general lack of a compelling single-player campaign and railing against the game’s use of A.I.

That would be less of a concern for Activision if the sales had been through the roof, but Black Ops 7 is struggling with a broad audience. The title took days to reach the 100,000 concurrent player benchmark on Steam, which is a major disappointment after the previous entry in the series amassed over 230,000 players in the same time frame. In fact, it’s a really disappointing turn after the massive success of both Black Ops 6 and the remake of Modern Warfare 3.

Since 2022, games in the series have typically broken that concurrent player threshold very quickly on Steam, highlighting how Black Ops 7 isn’t landing quite like Activision was hoping. Given the sheer scale and size of the game, it needs to turn a large profit to be seen as successful. While Black Ops 7 may find better luck in the console space, the Steam numbers aren’t a promising development for the franchise.

Black Ops 7 Is Facing Stiff Competition And A Frustrated Playerbase

Multiple factors seem to be at play with Black Ops 7‘s initial struggles. For one, gamers looking for fresh FPS experiences have more options thanks to the launch of Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders, both of which have easily surpassed the 100,000 concurrent player benchmark. Compounded with enduring old favorites like Counter-Strike 2 and free-to-play behemoths like Fortnite, the PC gamer audience seems to have simply not been drawn in to Black Ops 7.

While Call of Duty is potentially doing better on consoles, this is also complicated by elements like Black Ops 7 being available as part of the Xbox Game Pass, meaning sales on that family of consoles will be impacted by players already paying for the subscription. There’s also the apparent poor reception that the broad audience and Call of Duty fans in particular have given the game.

The user score for Black Ops 7 is a dismal 1.7 on Metacritic at the time of writing, with over 2,000 reviews calling out the shallow campaign mode and attempts to further monetize the experience. The fact that fans seem to be turning against the game is another blow to Black Ops 7, as that loyal fanbase seems to be flocking to other titles instead of holding out hope for Black Ops 7 to have a resurgence.

Where Does Call Of Duty Go From Here?

Black Ops 7 is inevitably going to be a blow to Call of Duty and Activision as a whole. With game studios that fall under the Microsoft umbrella (like Activision) expected to turn around massive profits from their game releases, this might lead to some real internal handwringing at the studio as they wrestle with the future of the series. They could try to replicate the multiplayer success of previous launches by leaning more into that aspect of the experience.

The next entry in the series could also be retooled to receive a much larger single-player focus, potentially giving players more reason to invest in the title for the story and characters. That was always one of the underlying strengths of the Modern Warfare subseries, as the genuinely compelling plotlines gave players more incentive to become invested in the world and master the gameplay before moving into the online multiplayer space.

This is unlikely to fully disrupt the Call of Duty franchise, which has become one of the foundational hits of modern gaming. However, this will likely give Activision some doubts about leaning too hard into the multiplayer-only approach and reevaluate how much the potential benefits of A.I. elements are in an environment where players are openly rebelling against that practice. Black Ops 7 suffered a big hit upon launch, but the franchise still has the ability to bounce back — it just may need some reevaluation before the series ships out for another battle.