Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone just hit a record low player count following Activision’s delay of the eagerly-awaited Season 3 update.
If you’re a COD fan, chances are you’re growing tired of waiting for new content in Black Ops 6 and Warzone.
The Season 2 update and its mid-season refresher brought with it some incredible content, such as the addition of The Tomb map for Zombies, and even a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event.
But now, it appears that fans are leaving Call of Duty for the time being – and the delay to Season 3 surely isn’t helping matters!
Call of Duty Hits Lowest Player Count in Months on Steam
According to metrics from SteamDB, Call of Duty just hit a 24-hour peak of just 66,945 concurrent players. This is a significant drop from its all-time peak of 491,000, which took place during Modern Warfare 2’s launch period.
The combined Call of Duty launcher hit a low of only 32,242 users in the last 48 hours, which is astonishingly low for Activision’s shooter franchise.
When Black Ops 6 launched in late October 2024, the COD application peaked at just over 315,000 users on Steam, and its player count has been steadily declining ever since.
By December, the player base had dropped significantly, peaking at around 192,600 concurrent Steam users.
Now, the game hits a peak player count of 70,000 simultaneous users each day, which is an alarming drop for Activision – especially when you take into account that the Call of Duty application contains more than just Black Ops 6.
Those 70,000 players are split across premium titles such as Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6, as well as free-to-play experiences such as Warzone.
However, the figure isn’t truly reflective of Call of Duty’s total player count. After all, we’re certain that COD is more popular on console than it is on PC, despite the fact that it’s impossible to track console players.
What’s more, some PC players will likely still be playing via Battle.net or Game Pass PC, which are similarly untrackable. But while we can’t be certain of the actual Call of Duty player totals, the decline we see on SteamDB is very likely reflective of what other platforms are experiencing too.
Why Are Fans Leaving Black Ops 6?
There’s no singular reason as to why Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty as a whole appears to be on the decline.
Most likely, fans are tired of waiting for new content, which always helps to boost player numbers. Whenever a new season arrives, we tend to see player counts spike.
Therefore, the recent two-week delay of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 3 probably didn’t help matters much. The Season 3 update won’t launch until April 3, when we expect to see players surge once again.
After all, Activision is making a big push to reignite the Warzone community by bringing back Verdansk, the original battle royale arena.
The recent delay was most likely made in order to ensure that Verdansk is fully ready to launch, as we’re certain that the publisher is aware of just how heavily its user base is declining.
What’s more, a new leak reveals that Modern Warfare 4 might not launch with Warzone 3, if Verdansk fails to bring players back to the battle royale title.
New Games Stealing Attention Is Inevitable
Of course, a dwindling player count is not as simple to explain as fans losing interest.
There will be a number of contributing factors to consider, such as the launch of other popular video games distracting fans from putting their regular hours into COD.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the launch of smash-hit titles such as Monster Hunter: Wilds, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Split Fiction, which each have hundreds of thousands of players in-game at the time of writing.
And for the shooter fans, a new free-to-play title, FragPunk, is currently getting a fair amount of attention, alongside the usual roster of Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends, PUBG and more.
We’re pretty sure that Season 3 will be make or break for Black Ops 6, and expect to see some significant increases as players flood back to Verdansk.
But if even that fails to bring back players, Activision will probably start the marketing for COD 2025 pretty soon, in an effort to capitalize on the hype a new title always brings.
Speaking of, we just got the full list of Call of Duty 2025 weapons leaking early, for all those who want a peek at the next Black Ops release.