Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 surpasses Modern Warfare 2 and 3 on Steam, although it still lags behind Warzone

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 performed better on Steam than Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3, but did not reach the maximum player count for Warzone 2.0.

Data from a player tracking website SteamDB shows that in the first weekend of sales for Black Ops 6 on the Call of Duty app, the number of concurrent players was 306,460. It peaked at 263,174 during the opening weekend of Modern Warfare 2 in 2022 and just 190,707 for the widely watched Modern Warfare 3.

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Warzone 2.0 still has its best debut since the recent Call of Duty with a peak of 491,670 players, but the free-to-play battle royale game is much more accessible than the $69.99 Black Ops 6.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will debut on October 28

This SteamDB data is the best indication of how Black Ops 6 is performing, as neither Xbox nor PlayStation has released player numbers for their consoles, and publisher Activision Blizzard hasn’t released any data yet either.

Further comparisons are also tough due to Call of Duty bypassing Steam for five years between 2017 and 2022, when Activision Blizzard decided to release Black Ops 4, Modern Warfare, Black Ops: Cold War and Vanguard exclusively on its own Battle. net for PC.

These numbers on Steam, however, indicate an boost in popularity, with Black Ops 6 also performing well critically. Fans of single-player shooters in particular are ecstatic to see the return to form, as the campaign received a 9/10 in IGN’s review. “An excellent pipeline of missions offering variety and flexibility makes Black Ops 6 the best Call of Duty campaign in many, many years,” we said.

The launch of Black Ops 6 is also special in that it is the first Call of Duty game to appear on Xbox Game Pass at launch. Analysts expected its release could add up to four million recent users to the subscription service, but at a cost of six million in lost sales.

If you’re recent to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer, check out our Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks to support you get started. We also have a full weapons list, a guide to all multiplayer maps and modes, and details on how to unlock all Black Ops 6 Operators.

Ryan Dinsdale is a freelance reporter for IGN. He will talk about The Witcher all day long.

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