As we roll into 2026, things are quiet on the news front, for the most part. But this little snippet caught my eye; Call of Duty just hit its lowest player count to date on Steam, despite Black Ops 7 launching in November.

First, some context; the Call of Duty launcher on Steam encompasses Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Call of Duty: Warzone. That’s three games total. It’s the only way to track player counts as the games are not listed separately.

Today, the launcher posted yet another record low for the franchise, with just 56,443 concurrent players covering all three games. Keep in mind, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched just 2 months ago in November, Even when it launched, though, the launcher didn’t post as big of a player increase as would normally be expected, hitting just over 100,000 concurrent players.

This, along with weaker than using chart performances, indicate that Black Ops 7 hasn’t sold very well.

It’s just another blow for Call of Duty in a year that Microsoft probably wants to forget. Battlefield 6 made its grand return with impeccable timing, striking at a moment when Call of Duty fatigue is hitting hard.

For comparison, Battlefield 6 hit 115,000 concurrent players on Steam in the last 24 hours.

Call of Duty‘s numbers put in 40th on the Steam charts when filtered by 24-hour player count, behind stuff like VRChat, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, and Slay the Spire.

Of course, we can’t forget that when it comes to Call of Duty‘s numbers, things are a bit more complicated. Black Ops 7 launched on Game Pass, and we have absolutely no idea how many people are playing on there and on console. That means we can’t say with absolute certainty that it’s player numbers are low, but the SteamDB data does not paint a pretty picture.