Call of Duty sees 159% spike in Xbox players following Black Ops 6 Game Pass launch

· TrueAchievements

Call of Duty sees 159% spike in Xbox players following Black Ops 6 Game Pass launch

Following the launch of Black Ops 6, the Call of Duty Xbox player count has risen by a whopping 159%, suggesting this year's COD is a hit with fans.

Sean Carey

Published 30 Oct 2024

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It appears that loads of Xbox users have been gunning down the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 achievements over the weekend, as our data shows that since the Xbox first-person shooter's launch on October 25, the Call of Duty Xbox player count has spiked considerably.

Call of Duty HQ Xbox player count spiked by 159% following Black Ops 6 launch

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see the Call of Duty launcher, AKA Call of Duty HQ, at the top of this week's Xbox Gameplay Chart. Call of Duty HQ regularly holds first place, mainly because it serves as a hub for multiple COD games: Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III, Warzone, and now Black Ops 6. Unfortunately, we have no way of working out individual player counts for each of these games. However, our data, which uses a sample size of 2.4 million Xbox accounts, shows that since the launch of Black Ops 6 on Friday, the Xbox player count for Call of Duty HQ has risen by an impressive 159%, further cementing its first-place position in the chart.

Of course, with the way the Call of Duty launcher is set up, we can't say for certain that the full 159% spike in players came solely from those checking out Black Ops 6, but it's more than likely the main factor here. Black Ops 6 is the first Call of Duty to launch straight into Game Pass, and it's the first COD in recent years under the HQ umbrella to launch without an early access period — Modern Warfare II and Modern Warfare III offered up to one-week early access to both of their campaigns. This makes it a little harder to make a direct comparison, but if we look at our data for Modern Warfare III, the Call of Duty player count rose by just 33% in the first two weeks of its launch in November 2023. Unfortunately, we can't make a comparison with Modern Warfare II as this is when the HQ launcher came into effect, swallowing up and combining both player counts from Warzone and Modern Warfare II.

It will be interesting to see where the Call of Duty player count sits in a couple of weeks and whether the boost provided by Black Ops 6 will keep it at the top of the Xbox Gameplay Chart. It certainly seems that way, especially as Treyarch is wasting absolutely no time in trying to keep players engaged by adding Nuketown and the fan-favorite game mode Infected to Black Ops 6 this week.

Xbox Gameplay Chart data is compiled using data from over 2.4 million active Xbox accounts (not just TrueAchievements accounts). Chart information is copyright Game Insights.

Regarding this data:
   •  When an account opens a game, this is registered as a game being played. Accounts can only register a game once per week.
   •  Our data is good for suggesting general trends — we represent this using percentages, not numbers.

More Call of Duty stories:

Data Analysis
Written by Sean Carey
A big fan of Xbox achievements, Sean has committed to playing as many of the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters on and off Xbox Game Pass as possible. Before joining TrueAchievements, Sean earned a degree in journalism from Solent University.