Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hits Steam player count low: attrition concerns

The last 12 months haven't been easy for the Call of Duty franchise. And the experience with Black Ops 6 feels particularly harsh. As soon as it landed, the complaints started rolling in – about the maps, the microtransactions, the matchmaking, you name it. It's astonishing how quickly enthusiasm can turn to frustration, especially when you compare it to Modern Warfare 3, which barely lost a fraction of its player base in the same period, maybe around 6% versus a reported 50% for Black Ops 6.

It hasn't just been player dissatisfaction; there were even suggestions that the development team behind Black Ops 6 might be using generative AI inappropriately, though I won't speculate on that without concrete evidence. Regardless, the player numbers stuck at a low point, which was already a worrying sign.

Now, it feels like things are getting worse. Each new season initially brought a slight uptick in numbers, offering a temporary reprieve. But lately, the trend has reversed sharply. The SteamDB numbers for the weekend of November 1st and 2nd tell a grim story. The peak concurrent players on Steam hit a record low – just over 112,000 people were playing simultaneously over the two days. That's not just low; it's historically low territory. It barely reached the numbers the game saw on a single peak day just weeks ago, and it's significantly lower than the previous low points, which were hovering around 115-118,000.

So what's causing this slide? There are a few potential factors. The biggest recent news in the shooter space was the launch of Battlefield 6's free Battle Royale mode. It's hard to ignore that Battlefield might be pulling players away. Then there's Fortnite, constantly evolving with fresh content ands like the recent Simpsons collaboration, which can always snag attention and divert players. On top of that, Black Ops 6 isn't the only new Call of Duty on the horizon. Activision, now under the new corporate umbrella following the Microsoft acquisition, has Black Ops 7 just around the corner. Maybe players are simply getting tired of Black Ops 6 after its long development cycle and eager for the next big thing.

This makes the decline interesting because, traditionally, leading up to a new Call of Duty release, the numbers for the current title usually hold up, or at least don't plummet. The sheer anticipation usually keeps people engaged. Add to that the massive changes and the long wait, and it's understandable why players might be losing patience. Plus, there are whispers that the internal pressure at Activision following the massive acquisition might be impacting the games' reception and perhaps even their development pace or quality.

It’s also worth considering the business side. Call of Duty needs constant content pushes, and sometimes those pushes feel less about player engagement and more about internal targets. The repeated issues with microtransactions and game updates can wear players down. The fact that players might need to re-download the game due to optimization problems is another frustration point – it signals underlying instability.

Ultimately, the sharp drop in Black Ops 6's Steam numbers isn't just about a couple of concurrent competitors offering different experiences. It seems to reflect a deeper fatigue with the current state of the franchise. While external factors play a role, the sheer scale of this decline compared to usual Call of Duty patterns is striking. The landscape for shooters has changed, and with Activision's massive bet on the Call of Duty franchise, this downturn could have wider implications than just one game's numbers.