Black Ops 7 physical sales down 61% as it fails to beat Battlefield 6 launch

Amid mass player complaints, poor reviews, and dwindling physical sales, Activision says Black Ops 7 has had a ‘great’ first weekend.

To say Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is having a rough launch would be an understatement. The game only launched on November 14 and it’s been met with a deluge of fan complaints about its awful campaign and use of generative AI.

It’s too soon to tell if this has had any major effect on the game’s long term prospects, but physical sales of Black Ops 7 are definitely down on last year’s entry in the UK.

Ever since digital took over, physical sales do typically decline each year, but compared to last year’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, they’re down by a shocking 61% for Black Ops 7.

This is according to data from market research company GfK, as shared by The Game Business editor-in-chief Christopher Dring on X, who added that Black Ops 7 also saw a smaller UK retail launch than its primary competitor Battlefield 6.

Black Ops 7 could make up for this decline with increased digital sales (numbers for which are generally never shared) but 61% is a far bigger drop than you’d expect for one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world.

There are also signs that it’s struggling to attract players on Steam. Per SteamDB, Black Ops 6 launched to over 306,000 concurrent players, but Black Ops 7 has barely managed to crack 100,000 concurrent players since its launch.

Admittedly, Black Ops 7 seems to be faring much better on PlayStation, with the UK PlayStation Store listing it as the second best-selling game at the moment, behind EA Sports FC 26.

The Microsoft store tells a different story. While Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 take the first two spots of the Xbox’s top sellers, Black Ops 7 sits outside of the top 10. Although that’s primarily due to Game Pass, as Xbox owners have less incentive to buy their own copy.

Perhaps what’s most telling is that Activision has yet to share any hard player stats. Last year, it was quick to boast how Black Ops 6 had the biggest three day opening weekend in series history, but Activision’s response to Black Ops 7’s first weekend is far vaguer.

‘Across opening weekend, we’ve seen a great response to the quality and depth of gameplay in Black Ops 7,’ reads an X post from the official Call Of Duty account, which you wouldn’t think if you read the horrifically negative user reviews on Metacritic.

‘This is only the start,’ it continues, which based on our experiences with the campaign reads as more of a threat. ‘Our teams have an incredible year of content and events lined up, beginning with season one around the corner. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come in Black Ops 7.’

Hopefully, Activision will offer some greater insight into Black Ops 7’s performance within the next week or so, but if it’s doing particularly badly, by the series’ standards, the company may be cagier about exact sales figures and focus on whatever data sounds the best.

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