The debut of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass seemingly had a noticeable effect on engagement on Xbox, while the PS5 edition of the game saw a big jump as well in terms of active users. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the Call of Duty HQ app–which includes Black Ops 6, Warzone, and Modern Warfare III–was played by 52% of active Xbox Series X|S users and 34% of active PS5 players on October 28. That compares to 19% and 18% on October 23 for Xbox and PlayStation, respectively.
The 52% for Xbox and 34% for PlayStation figures represented all-time highs for Call of Duty HQ, according to Piscatella, who was citing Circana’s own Player Engagement Tracker.
The previous highs for US daily active player engagement for Call of Duty HQ on Xbox Series X|S was 34% (August 31, 2024) and 27% on PS5 (September 7, 2024).
What does this all mean? Piscatella wants to see more data before drawing conclusions, but for now, he said it supports the idea that Black Ops 6 coming to Game Pass “very likely helped” improve engagement results on Xbox while also not significantly detracting engagement statistics on other platforms. “Still early, needs more data,” Piscatella said.
“(And btw… over HALF of all daily active players on a platform playing one game [Call of Duty HQ] is bonkers engagement),” Piscatella said.
Microsoft and Activision previously announced that Black Ops 6 had the “biggest” three-day opening weekend in franchise history for total number of players, hours played, and matches. It was also recently confirmed that Activision has now sold more than 500 million Call of Duty games.
During an earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Black Ops 6’s release on October 25 set a record for new Game Pass subscriber additions on launch day, though he didn’t offer a specific figure. Nadella went on to say that Black Ops 6 sales on PlayStation and Steam were up “over 60% year-over-year” compared against 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
Black Ops 6 expands this week with the launch of the highly anticipated Nuketown multiplayer map on November 1. After that, Black Ops 6 Season 1 begins on November 14, and this also includes the introduction of Call of Duty: Warzone’s newest map, Area 99.
For more, you can check out GameSpot’s Black Ops 6 campaign and multiplayer reviews.
