According to Eurogamer.net, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 currently ranks 173rd on Steam’s wishlist charts, behind titles like the Killer Bean game and Palworld dating sim, despite launching in approximately two weeks. The report notes that Battlefield 6 is significantly outperforming Black Ops 7 in wishlist performance, marking one of the most contested Call of Duty releases in recent years. This unexpected positioning raises questions about whether platform fragmentation and rising competition are beginning to impact the franchise’s traditional dominance.
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The Platform Fragmentation Effect
The Steam wishlist numbers don’t tell the full story of Call of Duty’s PC performance. Between 2018 and 2022, Activision made the strategic decision to sell Call of Duty titles exclusively on Battle.net, which reportedly hurt the franchise’s PC performance but likely trained a segment of the player base to associate the platform with Call of Duty. More significantly, Microsoft’s aggressive push of Call of Duty on Game Pass creates a massive alternative distribution channel that fundamentally changes how players access the franchise. With Black Ops 7 launching day-one on Game Pass, many PC players have little incentive to wishlist a game they’ll access through subscription rather than purchase.
The Console-Centric Reality
While Steam wishlist performance generates headlines, it’s crucial to understand that Call of Duty has always been a console-first franchise. During the FTC vs Microsoft hearing, former Activision Blizzard King CEO Bobby Kotick revealed that only 25% of Call of Duty’s daily active users were on PC, with more than half attributed to Call of Duty Mobile. This console dominance means that Steam metrics, while indicative of platform-specific trends, don’t reflect the broader health of a franchise that generates massive revenue through console sales, mobile gaming, and in-game purchases across multiple titles.
FPS Market Evolution
The Battlefield series resurgence represents the most direct threat to Call of Duty’s dominance in years. Battlefield 6’s apparent success in capturing the “realistic modern military” aesthetic that some fans feel recent Call of Duty titles have abandoned indicates a potential market segmentation. Meanwhile, extraction shooters and other FPS subgenres are carving out dedicated audiences, creating a more fragmented competitive landscape than the franchise faced during its peak Black Ops era. This increased competition forces Activision to innovate rather than rely on established formulas.
Long-Term Strategic Questions
The Steam wishlist performance raises deeper questions about Activision’s platform strategy. While day-one Game Pass inclusion guarantees massive player counts, it may dilute the traditional launch momentum and revenue spikes that defined previous Call of Duty releases. The franchise’s multi-platform approach across Steam, Battle.net, Microsoft Store, and Game Pass creates data fragmentation that makes true performance assessment challenging. More critically, if Steam wishlists serve as a leading indicator of broader player enthusiasm, Activision may need to reconsider how it builds anticipation across an increasingly divided PC ecosystem.
Market Outlook and Predictions
Despite the concerning Steam metrics, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will almost certainly achieve commercial success through its multi-platform presence and Game Pass inclusion. However, the numbers signal a potential erosion of the franchise’s automatic dominance in the FPS space. The real test will come in player retention and engagement metrics post-launch, particularly whether the game can maintain strong concurrent player counts across all platforms. If Battlefield 6 and other competitors capture significant market share, we may see more aggressive pricing, content, or feature adjustments in future Call of Duty releases as Activision responds to a genuinely competitive landscape for the first time in over a decade.
