EDIT: Ok so as someone pointed out, apparently that 500 million is across all COD games ever sold, not specifically Black Ops 6. That makes much more sense then.

Nothing to see here then, I am sure that when Black Ops 7 is released, they are reaching 520 million or so, and we have yet another clickbait news title.

Original uninformed message below, just for your amusement:

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I know the game is not on GOG (LOL! Sorry had to say such an obvious thing) and generally I am not that interested in these newer military shooters which seem to be more geared towards multiplayer (I've played through the single-player campaign of was it the first Black Ops or Black Ops 2, don't remember for sure, it was ok but meh)...

...but did I just read right this game has already sold 500 million copies worldwide, second only to the original Super Mario Bros game which has sold even more over many years? And this record sales even though the game was just released?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/video-games/2024/10/30/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-500-million-copies-sold/

I mean... wow. Just wow. Unless I am missing something here and 499 million of those "sales" are XBox gamepass subscriptions or something. The game even costs something like 80-110€ depending which edition you buy, so it is quite an expensive release as well, even on PC.

On a negative side for us DRM-free purists, it doesn't seem to have slowed down its sales that even the single-player campaign requires always-online connection, Activision claims this is so that you get the best possible texture quality (what?!?) or something... but on the flipside, maybe most primarily buy the game for its online multiplayer so it is a mere footnote to most that the single-player campaign also requires an always-online connection.

I haven't been this impressed since my mother did a backflip even though she is dead, D-E-D dead!

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On unrelated but equally impressive or at least surprising gaming news:

https://www.gamereactor.eu/capcom-sells-more-games-on-pc-than-all-the-consoles-combined-1449563/

54% of Capcom's sales come from PC nowadays? I do find that quite surprising, especially for a Japanese company. PC gaming overall is doing pretty good then, I guess? Good mostly for Valve/Steam I guess, I hope a bit of that success trickles down to GOG as well.

Is new CoD still releasing every year? I think I lost track like 6 years ago.

Yeah I was also surprised Black Ops is already in its 6th installment, even though to my understanding it is just one arch of the whole COD franchise. No idea how many COD games there are in total.

EDIT: Apparently 21 COD games released so far. That actually averages to about "one COD game a year" since the first game was released in 2003. :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty

From those news it appeared COD: BO6 has been in development quite many years though, 4 years or something.

Yeah, the last one I remember consciously reading about was that Modern Warfare remake/reboot from 2019. And I see they're still doing the same shtick with the same three studios on roster. That's actually impressive.

Good for them for not being like those morally bankrupt Factorio scumbags updating one game for a decade and still demanding money for it (it's a joke and a nod to this wildly entertaining thread :P).

I think that is to be expected, with a big franchise and day one gamepass availability being announced a while ago. The group of friends I'm playing with (and myself) are all playing it on a gamepass subscription. I think it's a good move from them. This one is pretty fun so far, but I've had many incidents where I bought the latest CoD for 70-80 euros and didn't enjoy it. Now we can at least try it for a lower price. I use gamepass a lot for Xbox and Windows, so I'll probably just keep on playing with the sub.

Yeah I have lots of appreciation also for games which the developers support for many many years with new content (including free new content), fixes etc., like No Man's Sky, many of the CDPR games etc.

Still, I have to admit that selling 500 million copies in such a short amount of time for such an expensive and apparently demanding (hardware) game... damn the gaming landscape has really changed. I still was on the mindset that selling a few million copies is good even for AA or AAA games, and remember the times when selling a few hundred thousand copies was also considered pretty good and a success. Of course nowadays it costs much more to create AA or AAA games, compared to 90s or early 2000s...

Selling so many copies in such a short of time also raises lots of questions to my mind, like:

- How well has it sold on different platforms, specifically how many copies have been sold on PC? Are most of those through Steam (I bet this release must have been another goldmine also for Valve, due to selling the copies through Steam). Just also thinking about the news how Capcom is nowadays selling most of its games to PC so maybe the PC version of COD BO6 has also sold particularly well on PC?

- How many of those sold copies are to China? Is it nowadays so that when a (PC) game sells this insane amount of copies, 80% of them tend to go to China, simply due to sheer amount of potential gamers there?

Any idea if those Gamepass subscriptions are somehow counted into that "500 million copies sold", and how big a part they are of those "sales"?

Frankly I have to admit I almost got an urge to buy the game myself from Steam, just to see what the hoopla is all about and why so many are suddenly buying it. It can't be just due to those TV or Youtube ads with Peter Stormare? I knew from the ads that "oh apparently there is another COD game coming out, meh...", but I was surprised it is THAT big a thing, pretty much the biggest thing ever? So kinda buying just to be part of a big release or event, like buying a ticket to the maiden voyage of Titanic or Hindenburg.

But nah, I'll save my money, there are plenty of other games I can buy with that money, even on GOG. I have currently 109 items on my GOG wishlist, lol! Then again I have put many of them there almost as bookmarks, like "That trailer looked nice, bookmarked in case that game is also worth a buy" or "Someone mentioned this game in a positive light, so wishlisted, have to inspect it more carefully later...".

Since you asked the question, I'll answer by politely pointing out that 'No, you did not read it right'. :)

It's the entire COD franchise that has sold 500 million copies, not Black Ops 6.

I have no idea if the 500 million includes gamepass, but it seems very likely. And I read some news about Black Ops 6 probably gaining "huge popularity" because of gamepass ahead of launch, while actual sales will go down because of it. Makes a lot of sense.

I understand getting some hype from the marketing. They always have big bombastic ads when the new games come out, with real actors in the campaigns like Kevin Spacey or Jon Snow! But if you are somewhat interested, I'd recommend subbing to a month of gamepass. It will give you more than enough time to play the campaign at least, if that's what you want to play.

For me it's actually more convenient. I get both the Windows and Xbox version on gamepass. I mostly play on my Series X when I am home, but play on a gaming laptop when I am away in another town for work. I finished a bunch of games with shared progression across platforms this way.

Oh ok, if that is the case, it changes everything... No wonder then, 21 games across 21 years after all.

I really couldn't understand how 500 million people would have suddenly bought this one game in a matter of few weeks. :D

So I presume when they say "Super Mario Pros has sold the best", they mean all possible Super Mario Bros games ever? I guess most of them are probably the first (few) NES games, but includes also other releases across the decades.

That is good news then because now my urge to see what kind of game sells that much (by buying and playing it) kinda fizzled. Money saved is money earned.

Yeah that seems to be the case when you read it carefully.

That is kind of a pointless statistics too I guess because obviously it favors series and franchises which have been ongoing for decades, and they pretty much have to share the name only anyway. Like pointing out how many times people have watched "Star Wars franchise" movies and TV-series over the years; much less relevant than e.g. how well some recent SW movie or TV series has done.

I agree that it's not relevant to the Black Ops 6 but I guess they want to use a big stat like that (which is, admittedly, pretty impressive) to help build hype around the new release.

As an aside, I was surprised to discover that 10 COD games have zombies in them! I would've thought you'd just pick a theme; war or zombies. It obviously works for them, though.

*makes masturbatory hand motion* Big whoop! ... Mindless masses like mindless things. Who knew? =P

With that % on PC Capcom needs to make their stuff run better...