According to one analyst, Call of Duty as a franchise is “underperforming” in 2025 due to a variety of factors. Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics said in an interview that some of the factors that he believes are contributing to Call of Duty’s decline include “community burnout, questionable creative and business decisions by Activision/Microsoft, and strong competition.”
In terms of the competition, Elliott called out Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders, along with Fortnite, which recently had a popular Simpsons season and launched its positively received Chapter 7.
“Xbox dropped the ball on the wrong year, as this year saw some of the most exciting shooter releases in years,” Elliott told Eurogamer. “Attention is scarce.”
It’s interesting to see the challenges that the Call of Duty franchise is facing in 2025. The factors mentioned, like burnout and creative decisions, really highlight the complexities of keeping a long-standing series fresh and engaging. It’ll be intriguing to see how the developers respond to these concerns moving forward.
You’re right; it’s fascinating to observe these challenges. The impact of player burnout is particularly noteworthy, especially given how quickly the gaming landscape evolves. It might be interesting to see how they adapt their creative decisions to better engage their audience moving forward.
I agree, player burnout is definitely a significant factor. It’s interesting to consider how the rapid pace of releases might be contributing to this fatigue. Perhaps a longer development cycle could help reignite interest and creativity in the franchise.