Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has outperformed both Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 on Steam, with data from player tracking website SteamDB showing the Call of Duty app saw a peak concurrent player count of 306,460 in Black Ops 6's first weekend on sale. It peaked at 263,174 during Modern Warfare 2's opening weekend in 2022 and just 190,707 for the universally panned Modern Warfare 3.
Warzone 2.0, of course, still has the best debut of a recent Call of Duty with a peak of 491,670 players, but the free to play battle royale is much more accessible than the $69.99 Black Ops 6.
This SteamDB data is the best indication of how Black Ops 6 is performing, as neither Xbox or PlayStation release player numbers for their consoles and publisher Activision Blizzard hasn't shared any figures yet either.
Further comparisons are also difficult due to Call of Duty bypassing Steam for five years between 2017 and 2022, when Activision Blizzard opted to release Black Ops 4, Modern Warfare, Black Ops: Cold War, and Vanguard exclusively on its own Battle.net on PC.
These Steam numbers do indicate a bump in popularity though, and Black Ops 6 has performed well critically too. Fans of single player shooters in particular are enjoying a return to form, as the Campaign earned a 9/10 in IGN's review. "An excellent string of missions that offer variety and flexibility come together to make Black Ops 6 the best Call of Duty campaign in many, many years," we said.
The launch of Black Ops 6 is also special as it marks the first Call of Duty game to come to Xbox Game Pass on launch day. Analysts expected its release could boost the subscription service by up to four million new users, but at the cost of six million lost sales.
If you’re jumping into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer, check out our Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks to help you get started. We’ve also got a full weapons list (including the below ranking tool you can participate in), a guide to all multiplayer maps and game modes, and details on how to unlock all Black Ops 6 operators.
Update: This story has been updated to remove direct comparisons with Call of Duty: Warzone.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
