It may be unsurprising, but we’ve officially got numbers to show that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 receiving a release on Microsoft’s Game Pass service has affected game sales numbers on both Xbox and PC. The numbers come courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz in their latest podcast, and only cover first week digital and physical sales in the United Kingdom.
Across all platforms, Black Ops 6 sold 368,000 units. These sales are 15% down from 2023’s Modern Warfare III, and 46% lower than 2022’s Modern Warfare II. Of those 368,000 units sold, 74% were on PlayStation consoles, with only 16% on PC and 10% on Xbox. As a point of comparison, last year’s Modern Warfare III had 26% of sales on Xbox, and 17% on PC. In sum, the PC and Xbox sales share has fell from 43% to 26%, with PlayStation rising from 57% to 74%.
As we mentioned in the intro, this isn’t a huge surprise. The Game Pass service allows both Xbox and PC players to subscribe to the service and download Black Ops 6 without it counting as a sale, so it’s highly likely here that Game Pass cannibalised some of Microsoft’s potential sales, and some of Steam’s too. We don’t have any word on how many Game Pass players downloaded Black Ops 6, but it’s entirely possible that the drop in paid players is being alleviated for Microsoft by more people buying into Game Pass – such as myself!
We’re still waiting to hear from Activision and Microsoft as to exactly how Black Ops 6 is performing commercially, but we’ll be sure to publish a follow-up when we hear some numbers. In the meantime, why not check out our glowing review of Black Ops 6? Our review writer is one such example of a person who opted to play the game on Game Pass rather than purchase it!
Have you picked up Call of Duty: Black Ops 6? How have you been playing the game? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to GameLuster for more gaming news.
