It was once a legend: The famous video game is losing blood

Interest in the series has dropped significantly ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which is scheduled to be unveiled at Gamescom on August 19th.

According to SteamCharts data, as of July 17, only 27,900 people were actively playing the game. The highest number of players in the last 24 hours was 66,798. These figures represent a decrease of approximately 86 percent compared to the series' all-time record of 488,897 players.

The "25 BILLION HOURS" debate

In 2020, some gaming publications claimed that players spent a total of 25 billion hours playing the Call of Duty series. This data recently resurfaced on social media. However, many gamers are questioning the accuracy of these figures. Users are questioning how the company achieved such a statistic on consoles without an internet connection, and some argue that the data may be fabricated.

BLACK OPS 6 DID NOT DELIVER AS EXPECTED

The latest game in the series, Black Ops 6, was added to Xbox Game Pass, aiming to rekindle player interest. However, according to analytics firm Ampere, this move only resulted in a 2 percent increase in subscribers on the platform. After the game's November 2024 release, player numbers rose to 33.7 million, but by March 2025, that number had fallen back to 20.6 million. This suggests serious issues with player retention.