Black Ops 6 scores biggest opening weekend in Call of Duty history

The first CoD to launch day-one on Game Pass

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The big picture: Opening weekend for the latest Call of Duty game has successfully demonstrated that interest in the popular first-person shooter has somehow reached an all-time high. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, co-developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, launched on October 25 across a range of platforms, and is the first CoD title with day-one access on Game Pass – a fact that can't be overlooked.

According to a post from the official Call of Duty X account, Black Ops 6 had the biggest three-day opening weekend ever for a Call of Duty title – ranking first in total players, numbers of hours played, and total matches held.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella echoed those sentiments during the company's recent earnings call, noting Black Ops 6 was the biggest CoD launch ever. The game set a new record for day one players and Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day as well, Nadella added.

The day-one Game Pass launch is noteworthy as it makes the new Call of Duty game accessible to even more players out of the gate. Some were concerned it might cannibalize unit sales, but that does not appear to have materialized as much as feared.

Speaking on the subject, Nadella said unit sales on Steam and PlayStation increased 60 percent compared to last year's entry.

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It is also worth mentioning that the dev teams had more time than usual to work on the title. The last CoD game from Treyarch and Raven Software was Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which landed in late 2020. Usually with CoD games, the dev team gets just two years to work. Could this trend of longer development time become the norm for the franchise?

Love it or hate it, one can not ignore what Call of Duty has been able to accomplish since the very first game hit the scene way back in 2023. More than two decades later, it remains the leading first-person shooter year in and year out.