Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards

The sad truth is, most studios/publishers would kill to have CoD's "lower than normal" sales figures, really starting to think it is "too big to fail"....

Wait, wasn't COD supposed to be dead for like the 8th year running?

@themightyant I suppose the thing I missed out from my original comment was, 95% of studios/publishers don't have a cool $700M budget (quick google search on BO7) for their games, but yes you are correct it won't be all sun shine and rainbows over at HQ...

A good few of the top ten are games there, that get totally slated on here and other sites and sometimes by reviewers.

Goes to show how small we are and big the general public are and why companies and publishers etc aim at them for sales.

On another note for the USA

The US has suffered its worst November since 1995 in terms of hardware sales
Average hardware prices up 11% on last year.

The ps5 price increase affecting it in the USA, the digital should have been $350 OR $300 since they pay tax seperately but it's 400USD

A bad month for the gaming industry as a whole but especially Nintendo. Yes, the economy is in the toilet but after the success that the Switch 1 was, this can't be the result Nintendo was hoping the successor would have in its first Black Friday especially with the first new Mario Kart in more than a decade bundled in, an awesome 3D DK game and a new Pokémon. That's also with retailers doing their own promotions for the console.
PS5 is now five years on the market and has already sold a healthy amount of units since it launched so, while not great, things also aren't completely disastrous for the brand.

The hardware numbers make sense. Consoles going up in price rather than down (the PS1 launched at $300 but eventually fell to $100) is clearly keeping a big chunk of people out of the market.

If I were a hardware maker intent on releasing new hardware I’d wait for overall inflation/ram prices/tariffs to fall (not sure when that’s going to happen, probably no time soon).

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3ma6vnwvjmk2h

The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US during November 2019 was $235. In November 2025 it was $439.

3.9 million units of video game hardware sold in the US in November 2019. In November 2025 it was 1.6 million.

Black Ops 7 is awful. I got to a part in the campaign where I had to kill zombies, or whatever they were meant to be. Turned the game off straight away.

@Carnage yeah I really hope the sales scare them and they delay they PS6. Late adapters spend less not more. the PS5 is more expensive this year black Friday than last year due to tarrifs

While Battlefield 6 did indeed eat up more of Blops7's market share than I predicted, I still resent this insistence that Blops7 is a huge flop. It's still #1 here, is doing just fine in the UK, and I'm sure will remain one of the best selling games of the year.

And people acting like this is the first time CoD struggled to match its one-year predecessor's numbers don't have the full story (for fun, just look up "modern warfare 3 sales down" on Youtube and see how many people were likewise ready to jump on any negative interpretation of that game's sales).

We're also completely missing a BIG part of CoD's perceived success under the Microsoft umbrella: GamePass subs and engagement. I know people like to assume GamePass as a whole isn't profitable — which would certainly explain why Microsoft has abandoned most other revenue sources in favor of it...cause they're stupid, which would be the only logical explanation that meshes well with that proposition — but if it isn't, and if CoD is actually plumping it up, I'd assume that would be considered a success in Microsoft's eyes. And one would assume that if more people are playing CoD through GamePass, that means less people are buying it. Not that I'm saying that's definitely what's happened, just that it's entirely possible and we don't really know either way yet.

I'm entirely willing to admit I was wrong about Battlefield 6's sales power (still didn't personally like it much, though. Not in a 'CoD fanboy' way either; I thought Battlefield 1 was better than 6 and any CoD multiplayer I've ever played). But this Blops7 hate remains one of the most obnoxious things to come out of the gaming community this year, in my opinion.

Nice to see Yotei still getting sales.

@themightyant I mean, 'flop' is synonymous with 'failure.' A comparative failure is a comparative flop. So if you're suggesting the former, you're suggesting the latter. There's no definite distinction between the two. Only the possibility of intrinsic connotative differences, which I don't have.

Semantics aside, yes, it's doing worse than Blops6. And yes, it's not one of the series' top-sellers. That might mean it is a comparative failure. But, without full context — which we'll likely never actually get — that remains unclear. We don't know what constitutes a failure at Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard-King for the CoD franchise. Especially when we don't know how this game affected or was affected by GamePass.

And your sales hypothesis is just a hypothesis. I also can't find it 50% off anywhere despite following links from webpages saying exactly that dated just 3-4 days ago (at least in the USA). So if it was 50% off, it has a fairly limited flash sale. And, looking at Blops6's digital sales history, it also had two notable sales before the end of its launch year. Which, to me, points to it all being fairly inconclusive when comparing Blops7's nebulous success to Blops6's nebulous success.

@themightyant Comparative apropos its predecessor/s or its turnover? Because the former doesn't really tell you how it as its own product is doing. And the latter is really too nebulous to come to any real conclusion at this point. Either way, I feel like I addressed both points in my previous comment. I fully understand that CoD would be expected to sell better than Metroid, given budget and revenue-dependence. But I can't say if CoD failed to meet internal expectations if we don't know what those expectations were. And given GamePass' existences, any conjecture on the matter on our part is likely misinformed.

Blops6 was also on sale before its launch year's end, so the "it's been out just 1 month" exasperation is unfounded. The ~50% off is the only uncommon thing there. But, like I said, it appears that's really only the case in the UK — baring some flash sale over in the US. But, still, it remains inconclusive what that means for Blops7's sales specifically.

It can
(https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/05/physical-game-sales-see-dramatic-drop-off-in-uk-as-console-market-struggles)
just as easily
(https://www.tweaktown.com/news/108962/physical-game-sales-in-the-uk-are-plummeting-ubisoft-says/index.html)
have to do
(https://gamingbolt.com/pokemon-legends-z-a-tops-uk-physical-charts-launch-sales-down-40-percent-over-arceus)
with weakening physical
(https://x.com/Chris_Dring/status/1939386768211509434?t=CYw48l3DSjcQHg1m9xSktg&s=19)
sales in the UK.

@themightyant Black Ops 6 was 25% off on PSN for half of December last year. Does the extra 5% off tell us anything, really?

shurgs

Presumably, 7 is doing worse than 6. But no one's arguing that.

EDIT: Also worth mentioning that the very same sales analysis from this article does actually say the US' physical sales had their worst November since 1995.

All that chit chat about BF 6 and yet the worst COD ever outsold it.

Hopefully, this ends the discourse once and for all: COD is BIGGER than BF.

Happy to see Yotei on Top 10!

@MrStark BF6 is the bestselling games of the year in the USA, CoD: BO7 is 7th. So it has sold significantly less so far. BF6 has had one month more on sale, but it was the no.1 selling game of the year after its first month alone.

In Europe the BO7 opening month was 60% less than BF6.

@SeaDaVie

COD will still come out on top. 👌

Havent put this much time on a COD since Black Ops 4. Its really good.

@MrStark Yeah, don’t bet any money on that one

@SeaDaVie Not a betting man so all good

Nice to see that Yotei and Spiderman 2 are still selling well. Yotei probably already pass 4 million or reach 5 million. And Spidey 2 probably in the 13-15 million right now.

And with this holiday, i hope Astro Bot will get some nice sales too although Sony probably are satisfied with the current numbers.

@MrStark Well i hope you sleep well when your terrible game sells better then quality. If it stays on top its worse for you and the rest of the gaming community and it will send a terrible message.

Only out just over 2 weeks in November yet sold enough to top Novembers chart in the US and jump straight into the top 10 for the YEAR. Its sold more in just 2 weeks than the thousands of games released and/or available to buy from Jan 5th onwards despite the negativity and fact its on Game Pass on 2 out 3 of the release platforms.

It maybe down on some other games in the Franchise, but I'd hardly say its a 'disaster' or a Flop as the negativity and hate comments would want you to believe. I bet Sony would love to release a game that sold as many copies in just 2 weeks as CoD as would many other Publishers and they don't give their games away on a Sub service.

I'm not saying that to belittle 'other' games, but that in just 2 weeks, CoD has outsold all but 6 games (3 annual sport releases, MH:W, B4 & BF6) - inc all those Award winners at GotY shows, many gamers Game of the Year regardless and its 'sales' are expected to be decimated by Game Pass users. Its done that in just 2weeks since release to be the 7th 'best sellin' game in the US for the year (Jan 5th-Nov 29th) so far.

@BAMozzy It's taking a sales hit for sure, but I agree, it's still a "big" seller. I was going to mention that even BF6 was half off too. Physical only, through Gamestop US. Still though, surprising to see it. Not a fan myself anymore. I just felt the hate online MAY have actually hurt it. Guess not then.

@BAMozzy

I bet Sony would love to release a game that sold as many copies in just 2 weeks as CoD as would many other Publishers

The game sold around 4m for the month WW(but concentrated in the USA).GoW: Ragnarok sold 5m in 5 days.The Last of us II sold 4m in 3 days. Spider-man 2 sold 5m in 11 days. GoW(2018) sold 5m in its launch month. Helldivers 2 sold 12m in 3 months etc. etc.

Also, the game cost $700m+ to develop most likely.

Ofcourse it's good in sales, but still a flop for profitability and a 60% dent compared to BO6 is bad enough since BO6 didn't even do better than MWII or MWIII?

Either way, the Black Ops named has been tarnished. It's going to take a lot of work to bring people back to it. Modern Warfare is still the flagship model - superior graphics, audio and polish.
Black Ops has always been this cheap version of COD that focused on improving gameplay, ala BO6.

Anyway, I expect omni-movement in MW4 but possibly they won't use it again because of the fact that it dissuades casual players. Sure they can pick it up and play, but it just won't be fun for them getting mopped. The sweat ratio has increased, which is fine for regular players like myself but man, trying to play this game as a new player? it's very punishing.

@themightyant Eh, possibly. This November wasn't short on big-sellers, though. What with Battlefield 6 (I'd assume the combined sales of BF6 and BO7 at the very least match the sales of BO6), Mario Kart World, Pokemon Z-A, the regular sports releases, Yotei showing some staying power, and several Nintendo games rounding out the new releases. So I would be surprised to learn the drop was really all CoD's fault. But it's possible.

Although I'm only doubtfully acknowledging that for the US. Over in the UK, no article I posted has anything to do with BO7. So we can assume that, if there's any cause/effect relationship, it's that poor physical sales are impacting BO7's sales and retail price rather than BO7's poor sales are notably weighting down the entire physical games market.