Throughout December of last year, we heard a lot of reports on how Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was underperforming in a commercial sense — and Circana's breakdown of 2025 software sales in the US certainly backs them up.
As relayed by Circana's Mat Piscatella, Black Ops 7 ranked fifth in dollar sales for the year — the franchise's lowest ranking since 2008's Call of Duty: World at War. This was despite Black Ops 7 being December's best-seller.
In short, it's one heck of a fall; Call of Duty is almost always at the top of the pile when these charts come around, but its newest instalment has clearly struggled.
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As GameSpot notes, Black Ops 7's inclusion on Game Pass will have sapped some sales power — but its predecessor, Black Ops 6, was in the same boat, and it ended up being 2024's number one seller.
Perhaps the most damning thing about this ranking, though, is that Black Ops 7 was outdone by a direct competitor in Battlefield 6, which is the best selling new release of 2025.
It was also topped by NBA 2K26, Borderlands 4, and Monster Hunter Wilds, in that order.
This whole Black Ops 7 saga has felt like a real wake up call for Activision, and so it'll be very interesting to see how the publisher handles this year's Call of Duty.
There were suggestions that the company was planning a rather drastic rethink for the series — and the studios behind it — but Activision actually denied those claims late last year.
What's your take on Blacks Ops 7, then? What did Activision get wrong? Take careful aim in the comments section below.