One of the biggest year-end questions people have about the gaming industry this year is whether or not Battlefield 6 will outsell Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, a feat that would end a 20-year run of Call of Duty's dominance. It remains to be seen if that will happen, and while we wait for the data to come in, Circana's Mat Piscatella has shared some data points about the shooter category in the US.
To begin with, Piscatella pointed out that the last shooter game to outsell a Call of Duty title in the US over a full year was Gears of War in 2006. The last FPS to beat Call of Duty was Star Wars: Battlefront II in 2005.
Call of Duty has reigned supreme in the US not just in the shooter and FPS categories, but generally as well. A Call of Duty game has finished the year as the best-selling title for 13 of the past 16 years, the exceptions being 2013 (GTA 5), 2018 (Red Dead Redemption II), and 2023 (Hogwarts Legacy).
"Still have some big weeks of potential sales to come, but this part of the market hasn't been this competitive in 20 years," Piscatella said of the shooter and FPS categories of the gaming market.
He added that comparing titles over such a long time horizon is imperfect because the gaming market today is much more "dynamic," especially with things like subscription services and free games like Fortnite. This means "sales alone don't tell the whole story."
Battlefield 6 is already performing better than Call of Duty's latest releases in the US. First-month sales of Battlefield 6 were higher than any other game's first-month sales going back to 2022, meaning Battlefield 6 sold better out of the gate than 2024's Black Ops 6 and 2023's Modern Warfare 3. Battlefield 6 needed just 22 days to eclipse the entire lifetime sales of Battlefield 1 in the US.
It was reported earlier this year that Microsoft missed out on $300 million+ in revenue for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 because it was on Xbox Game Pass. That doesn't tell the whole story, though, as the Black Ops 6 release no doubt incentivized people to sign up for Game Pass.
People will want to compare Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7, but no comparison between the two would be complete or necessarily fair for a variety of reasons. One is that Black Ops 7 is available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Another is that Black Ops 7 is releasing on more platforms than Battlefield 6, as Activision's game is supporting last-gen platforms and EA's is not. Yet another element to consider is that Battlefield 6 sales are reportedly skewed toward PC.
Black Ops 7 launched on November 14, and in a break from tradition, Activision's celebratory first-weekend post did not include any data about how the game is performing compared to past games. Before this, Activision acknowledged "fatigue" around the Black Ops brand given the back-to-back releases of Black Ops 7 in 2024 and Black Ops 7 in 2025.
Prior to Black Ops 7's release, industry experts said Battlefield 6 didn't have a real chance at beating Black Ops 7, in part because of the size, scale, and momentum of the Call of Duty series. One analyst said people buy Call of Duty every year with "autopilot purchasing," even if they complain about a lack of new features or innovation.
Circana's report for US sales in November will be released on December 17, so keep checking back with GameSpot to see how Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 sales compare.
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To begin with, Piscatella pointed out that the last shooter game to outsell a Call of Duty title in the US over a full year was Gears of War in 2006. The last FPS to beat Call of Duty was Star Wars: Battlefront II in 2005.
Call of Duty has reigned supreme in the US not just in the shooter and FPS categories, but generally as well. A Call of Duty game has finished the year as the best-selling title for 13 of the past 16 years, the exceptions being 2013 (GTA 5), 2018 (Red Dead Redemption II), and 2023 (Hogwarts Legacy).
"Still have some big weeks of potential sales to come, but this part of the market hasn't been this competitive in 20 years," Piscatella said of the shooter and FPS categories of the gaming market.
He added that comparing titles over such a long time horizon is imperfect because the gaming market today is much more "dynamic," especially with things like subscription services and free games like Fortnite. This means "sales alone don't tell the whole story."
Battlefield 6 is already performing better than Call of Duty's latest releases in the US. First-month sales of Battlefield 6 were higher than any other game's first-month sales going back to 2022, meaning Battlefield 6 sold better out of the gate than 2024's Black Ops 6 and 2023's Modern Warfare 3. Battlefield 6 needed just 22 days to eclipse the entire lifetime sales of Battlefield 1 in the US.
It was reported earlier this year that Microsoft missed out on $300 million+ in revenue for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 because it was on Xbox Game Pass. That doesn't tell the whole story, though, as the Black Ops 6 release no doubt incentivized people to sign up for Game Pass.
People will want to compare Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7, but no comparison between the two would be complete or necessarily fair for a variety of reasons. One is that Black Ops 7 is available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Another is that Black Ops 7 is releasing on more platforms than Battlefield 6, as Activision's game is supporting last-gen platforms and EA's is not. Yet another element to consider is that Battlefield 6 sales are reportedly skewed toward PC.
Black Ops 7 launched on November 14, and in a break from tradition, Activision's celebratory first-weekend post did not include any data about how the game is performing compared to past games. Before this, Activision acknowledged "fatigue" around the Black Ops brand given the back-to-back releases of Black Ops 7 in 2024 and Black Ops 7 in 2025.
Prior to Black Ops 7's release, industry experts said Battlefield 6 didn't have a real chance at beating Black Ops 7, in part because of the size, scale, and momentum of the Call of Duty series. One analyst said people buy Call of Duty every year with "autopilot purchasing," even if they complain about a lack of new features or innovation.
Circana's report for US sales in November will be released on December 17, so keep checking back with GameSpot to see how Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 sales compare.
Source