Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been out for a few days, and has enjoyed its first weekend released into the hands of eager players. However, current concurrent player counts have many fans asking: Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 underperforming?
This question stems from one source in particular, the SteamDB listing for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The game is ranked 6th in global top sellers, which should reassure some fans. However, the game has only just reached a peak concurrent player count above 100,000.
This sounds impressive – it is a huge amount of people to be playing a game at once on one platform – but comparing Black Ops 7 to previous releases paints an altogether different picture. Back in 2024 when Black Ops 6 came out, the game saw a peak of around 315,000 on Steam. Earlier still, in 2022 when Modern Warfare III released, the game saw a Steam peak of roughly 491,000.
There’s been a clear drop in players, then. This returns us to the question: Is Black Ops 7 underperforming? While specific figures on other platforms aren’t nearly as public than Steam, we can see a different story elsewhere. We can’t sort games on storefronts by concurrents, but we can by recent sales (for the most part). For example, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the second top selling game on the PlayStation Store as of writing. The Xbox store ranks Black Ops 7 at the top of “Most relevant”, which indicates some degree of high interest from Xbox owners.
It’s also worth noting other PC storefronts do exist, even if Steam is the most popular of them. Call of Duty has been available on the Battle.net launcher for a few years now, and there’s the Microsoft games store too – though, this store ranks Black Ops 7 15th in its Top Paid category.
The game is also available on console and PC Game Pass, which may very well impact where it lands in terms of direct sales. Modern Warfare 3, which was previously highlighted as a peak for recent Call of Duty releases on Steam, did not launch day one on Game Pass. Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 did, which could very well have impacted these figures.
The truth is obviously unclear as of right now, and we can only judge by Steam figures. However, Steam is the biggest PC platform, and it’s not like Steam users are aliens with totally different wants than the console player base. With Black Ops 7 having the lowest metacritic user score for a Call of Duty game ever, and other big hitters like Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders popping up close to its release date, maybe Call of Duty has been jumped a bit this year.
If you are curious as to how Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is this year, why not read Eurogamer’s review!
