Black Ops 6 is massively outselling last year’s Call of Duty even though it’s on Game Pass, which probably tells you how Modern Warfare 3 went

This won’t surprise you, but the latest Call of Duty is doing numbers. Addressing investors today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Black Ops 6 isn’t only a hit, but it’s the “biggest Call of Duty release ever,” setting a day one player record.

Nadella must be settling nicely into his new role as Call of Duty overlord, because declaring that this year’s Call of Duty is the new biggest Call of Duty you’ve ever made is classic Activision. Even when CoD was clearly in a down year, Activison’s previous stewards always found a metric that it excels in. To be fair, anyone could’ve guessed Black Ops 6 was gonna break a CoD record or two: It’s the first Call of Duty to launch on Game Pass, so it would’ve been bigger news if it weren’t immediately the most-played on release day.

Nadella also mentioned that sales on PlayStation and Steam are up 60% over last year. A positive sign for the series’ health, but without sales numbers to compare, I wonder if this speaks more to how much of a stinker last year’s Modern Warfare 3 was.

The victory lap continued on social media, where the Call of Duty X account shared engagement records (again, no actual figures included). Over a three-day opening weekend period, Black Ops 6 racked up the most hours and matches played in series history, which is consistent with the total player record. Launching the biggest game of every year on Microsoft’s subscription service is having the intended impact on subscribers, too: Nadella added that BO6 contributed to Game Pass’ highest single-day subscriber adds.

Our Black Ops 6 review is in progress, but the party happening in the Zombies mode looks fun, and I’m happy to report that Omnimovement has won over this boots-on-the-ground player.