Black Ops 7 is Dominating Battlefield 6 on Consoles in 2026

The battle between Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 continues into 2026, as Treyarch’s latest entry in the series appears to have thrashed EA’s shooter on PlayStation and Xbox. Although Battlefield 6 remains one of the most-played games on Steam in the new year, it appears to be drastically underperforming in terms of player retention on consoles, while Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, on the other hand, is sitting comfortably in the number two position.

Call of Duty and Battlefield have been going head-to-head as the two biggest first-person shooters for decades now. With multiple studios working on Call of Duty all year round, Activision has been able to publish a new entry in the series every single year since 2005. Battlefield, on the other hand, has a much more irregular release schedule, often launching new titles every 3-5 years. This means Activision regularly comes out on top, dominating sales charts year after year as not only the best-selling shooter on the market, but one of the best-selling games overall. However, gamers were shocked to find out that the tables turned in 2025, as Battlefield 6 emerged victorious as the best-selling shooter of the year.

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Black Ops 7 Was the Second Most Played Game on Consoles Earlier This Month

After the disastrous launch of Battlefield 2042 in 2021, EA and Battlefield Studios came back stronger than ever with Battlefield 6, dethroning Call of Duty for the very first time. However, that momentum doesn’t appear to have carried over into 2026, as new data from Circana (via CharlieIntel) reveals that Call of Duty was the most-played game on PlayStation and Xbox in the United States for the week ending January 17, with Battlefield 6 nowhere to be seen. EA’s shooter is, however, continuing to dominate on Steam, remaining the third most-played game on the platform, just below Counter-Strike 2 and Embark’s extraction shooter, ARC Raiders.

While it seems like Call of Duty is far more popular on consoles than Battlefield 6, there are a few caveats to these statistics. The first is that Battlefield 6 is only available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, whereas Black Ops 7 is available on current and previous-gen consoles, including PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, meaning the shooter is available to a much wider market of players. Another noteworthy point is that the Call of Duty HQ app includes three titles, one of which is free-to-play. Black Ops 6, Black Ops 7, and Warzone are all tied to the Call of Duty app on consoles.

With that being said, it’s no surprise that Battlefield 6 has seemingly failed to retain players on consoles, as its post-launch support has left much of the community disappointed. Although the shooter is still one of Steam’s top-played games, according to Circana, SteamDB shows that Battlefield 6 has lost the majority of its daily active users, with a staggering 89% decline from its all-time peak. At launch, the latest entry in the series soared to more than 747,000 concurrent players on the platform, but now only manages to peak at around 80,000 concurrent users each day. While it might be a massive drop-off, it still remains a popular choice for Steam users.

EA and Battlefield Studios will likely be eager to bump those numbers back up, on both consoles and PC, with the launch of Battlefield 6 Season 2 next month. The second season was supposed to be available already, but Battlefield Studios announced a delay to Season 2 in order to further refine and polish the update based on player feedback. As such, the game’s current season has been extended with some minor new pieces of content to keep players going until the next season launches on February 17.

Released

November 14, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs