Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is off to a rough start, with quite possibly the worst launch in the series’ history.
Black Ops 7 has been relentlessly slated online for what some gamers have labeled a weak single player campaign. From its giant Harper fight, to raining machetes, the whole thing feels like a fever dream certain gamers don’t want to be part of.
Taking a closer look at the game’s Steam activity paints a clearer picture of what a weak entry this game is for the Call of Duty series, with only 41,131 players at the time of writing.
The 24-hour peak has been 100,000, which compared to Battlefield 6 is abysmal. Electronic Art’s multiplayer shooter is currently sitting at 99,788 players, with a 24-hour peak of 299,135.
It’s worth noting though that despite having less players and a lower rating than Battlefield 6, Black Ops 7 is still regarded as the better seller on the Steam charts.
Both games were always going to compete with one another but the latest Call of Duty game is even falling short of titles that were never expected to be seen side-by-side with the biggest franchises in the genre…
A quacking success
Escape From Duckov, a top-down extraction shooter, is somehow ahead of Black Ops 7 in terms of player count.
No shade to Escape From Duckov by the way. It’s a fine game but I don’t think the developers would have expected it to compete with one of the biggest shooter franchises on the planet.
Currently Escape From Duckov is sitting at 64,149 players, with a 24-hour peak of 109,994, beating Black Ops 7 on both accounts.
As you can imagine Call of Duty fans and gamers in general have taken the opportunity to criticise Black Ops 7 for underperforming.
“COD losing to Escape from Duckov is crazy. BO7 really dropped a whole blockbuster budget just to get packed up by a game that sounds like it was made in someone’s garage during lunch break” read one reaction.
Others are urging Activision to pause future instalments until a creative reset is done, saying: “Call Of Duty really needs a hiatus at this point and to be made into a one game every three years franchise.”
It’s shocking to see what was once such a major player in the video game industry reduced to this.
Hopefully the next Call of Duty takes a more grounded approach.
