Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s early access beta is here and, by all accounts, is not doing too well when compared to this year’s big opponent, Battlefield 6. In the numbers, Activision’s latest first-person shooter is struggling on two major platforms – Steam and Twitch.
On Steam, Call of Duty has produced a 24-hour peak of just under 75,000 users. By comparison, Battlefield 6’s peak at the same point during the early access beta window was around 335,000 users. On Twitch, Black Ops 7 has 185,000 viewers at the time of publishing, while at a similar time in the beta window, Battlefield 6 had 504,000.
Will Things Get Better On The Weekend?
Black Ops 7 is this year’s Call of Duty title, and following this week’s Call of Duty NEXT event, feelings about the title are mixed within the community. For many, it’s a reskin of Black Ops 6, and for others, it represents a stunning title with incredible movement that’s sure to be the best thing since sliced bread.
And then some occupy a spot in between; those users who buy Call of Duty out of habit once a year.
It’s never the safest bet to hinge the performance of a game on Steam alone, but consider that Call of Duty’s hub features several games, including the Black Ops 7 beta, and it’s still floating at around 75,000 players on Steam as the early access beta goes live. It wasn’t tough to get codes for that beta, so it seems strange that so few people are playing it.
Sure, we could stress that more people play Call of Duty via Battle.net on PC, but the EA App facilitated much of the PC-based gameplay for Battlefield 6, and that still flew to more than half a million players on Steam in the first weekend.
We picked up a quote from Activision regarding the beta’s performance across the wider ecosystem:
“The Black Ops 7 Beta Early Access is already off to a great start. The early response across all platforms has been tremendous, and we’ve only just begun. We look forward to the entire community, across all platforms, coming together to experience the Open Beta beginning Sunday.”
Many have professed something akin to COD fatigue in recent years, after several failings and shortfalls have left gamers tired of the annual offering. What’s worse for Activision is that this year, Battlefield 6 is coming as a stalwart contender for the FPS crown, and if the viewership and player count figures from the beta are anything to go by, it might just snatch that crown.
Are you playing the Black Ops 7 beta? Let me know what you’re thinking about it on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out everything you need to know about Fallout 76’s Burning Springs update
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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