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Call of Duty franchise loses over 50 million players in a year

Draugoth

Gold Member

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Call of Duty has had record player count losses, losing over 50 million since last year. The Activision Blizzard franchise is set to pause development on a 2023 CoD after the release of Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.​

The Call of Duty series has hit a three-year low in player engagement this quarter, with the Activision financials revealing that CoD has sunk to below 100 million players over the last year and has lost 50 million players in the process. he monthly active users — or MAUs if you like lingo — has come down below 100 million to 94 million as of June 30th. This is the lowest the franchise has seen for nearly three years and is much lower than the first quarter 2021 peak of 150 million that coincided with the Call of Duy Mobile release.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Losing 50 million is only half the story. Where did the 50 million players actually go to?

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the answer for a lot of them was "nowhere". As in, they were teenagers when COD4 came out, they're closing in on 30, and it's just time to hang it up. We already went through COD4 Remastered for the nostalgia hit and they didn't even bother doing MW2's MP again.
 

Lady Jane

Banned
Meh. Vanguard was a dud but not the first dud. CoD can bounce back like they've done before and MWII can do that.
 
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Saber

Gold Member
Reflex of dumb ideas(Vangard) and tired content.
Maybe the next one will make a return, since MW is a big one in the series.
 
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Between MW2 likely being better than Vanguard, and every COD about to be added to Game Pass within a few months to a year, they'll regain those 50 million and more fairly quickly
 

Hari Seldon

Member
What they should do is vary the franchise so that every single game is not exactly the same thing with the same movement and the same gun feel. I gave up on COD a decade ago, but damn did I have fun in Halo multiplayer this year. COD feels stale as fuck.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Same Call of Duty that according to Sony no AAA studio can rival with?
I mean - if you look at military shooters you might as well add all of them together (minus Crossfire) and still likely won't get to 100M MAU.
But sure - if downward trend continues, COD will make itself rival other shooters in a couple of years - basically the reverse of:
extrapolating.png
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
finally cod yearly releases took a hit....

cod cold war was pretty good imo...dont know about vanguard....but they deff need a break...

just give cod to treyarch and let the the other two do something else....
 

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
people will come back for warzone 2 and MW2, even if for brand name alone

eventually gamepass will also do wonders for cod
 
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So, is Modern Warfare 2 a remake of the old game, a new one or what?

What about Warzone 2, I feel I have downloaded Warzone several times now with their way of handling patches. Will I not only get the opportunity to download the game again, but also pay for it again? Two for the price of one? :D
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
Only 95 million players.
Damn what COD gonna do.
They are never gonna recover.

Absolutely in the shitter, everyone knows success is only counted after 100 million.
You know like.....all those other games that have 90+ million players.
?

Wasnt the point of this thread and completly missing the issue

Loosing that many numbers is not good no matter how you spin it

are you damage controling here or something like that?

Celebrating or brag about that is not something to be proud of either tasking 3 studios churning the same game every year a clear signs of creative bankrupt
 
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jorgejjvr

Gold Member
So, is Modern Warfare 2 a remake of the old game, a new one or what?

What about Warzone 2, I feel I have downloaded Warzone several times now with their way of handling patches. Will I not only get the opportunity to download the game again, but also pay for it again? Two for the price of one? :D
MW2 - new game, not a remake, just same name

Warzone 2 - new warzone experience, separate from 1, likely a different download, still a free standalone experience
 
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Rivet

Member
I bet Phil and Nadella are loving this headline right now if you think about it.
Suspicious really he he.:messenger_smiling_with_eyes:

Yes, there's nothing more comforting when spending 70 billion on a publisher than losing a third of its major franchise player base, with overall net revenue down 46% YoY.

Masterclass in market timing there.
 
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Stuart360

Member
Yes, there's nothing more comforting when spending 70 billion on a publisher than losing a third of its major franchise player base, with overall net revenue down 46% YoY.

Masterclass in market timing there.
Well i'm talking right when the fair trade commison are looking into the deal, and Microsoft are trying to play down COD, then this headline comes out.

We have been here before with COD. Rememebr the disaster that was Ghosts, and how some people were convinced it was the end of COD?. Yeah once Moddern Warefare 2 and especially Warzone 2 release, COD numbers will be bigger than ever. And you can quote that for future reference.
 

supernova8

Banned
Losing 50 million is only half the story. Where did the 50 million players actually go to?

So they lost 50m over that year period, but how many did they gain over the last year (or two years to consider boost from pandemic) relative to "normal" levels? That information would help in allowing us to understand whether this is a big deal. That said, gaining 50m players and then losing them is obviously not something to celebrate.
 

proandrad

Member
That 50 million number seems off. Are these all unique players? Are they mostly free to play warzone players?
 
So they lost 50m over that year period, but how many did they gain over the last year (or two years to consider boost from pandemic) relative to "normal" levels? That information would help in allowing us to understand whether this is a big deal. That said, gaining 50m players and then losing them is obviously not something to celebrate.
Fun fact: in Q2 2019, so pre-covid, Activision only had 37m MAU. They had 125m in Q2 2020, but this was already with a proper covid-boost.
 

yurinka

Member
They still have a shit ton of players, but many games would kill for these 50M.

Losing 50 million is only half the story. Where did the 50 million players actually go to?
Probably they are from the covid bump: due to lockdowns, fear and security reasons people stayed at home and played more. Now most people are going back to "normal" so don't play that much as during covid.

So probably they are now on the cinema, a mall, doing some trips, etc.

I assume a portion of them replaced CoD for other games: maybe got tired of Warzone or Mobile, or didn't like the mos recent CoD and left them to play any other appealing game from this or another genre.
 
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spawn

Member
I'm in the minority, but I disliked Warzone. It's full of cheaters and no one that I match up with plays as a team. Everyone goes their own way. Where I work I see what people spend their money on. These really young people are buying cheats for Fortnite, Warzone, and Apex. It's a freakin cancer
 

killatopak

Gold Member
Covid is kinda winding down so people who have to stay home and play aren't that many anymore. I expect every online game to wind down as well in player count.
 
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