Black Ops 6 playerbase continues to decrease and it has reached a concerning number

The Black Ops 6 playerbase has taken a hit since its launch in October 2024. The latest FPS title from the CoD franchise had initially achieved notable success, reaching an all-time high of 249,000 concurrent players on Steam. However, this momentum was short-lived, as the game lost approximately 145,000 players in December 2024, with the numbers continuing to drop despite the release of new content updates.

This article attempts to analyze the decline of the Black Ops 6 playerbase.

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Black Ops 6 playerbase has experienced notable decline and has reached a concerning number

The Black Ops 6 playerbase suffered a major blow in 2025 after its launch phase in 2024. According to the player stats website SteamB, Call of Duty has lost almost half of its playerbase since its global release. The stats from the website display a sudden plunge in the overall player count.

Call of Duty player count on Steam (Image via SteamDB)

Call of Duty saw an average of 165,668 players in November 2024 at the time of BO6's release. However, this number decreased to approximately 89,175 in January 2025, which is a considerable plummet in short time.

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A previous CoD title, Modern Warfare 3, averaged around 103,126 players during its peak in November 2023. By January 2024, this number decreased to approximately 89,000, representing a relatively small six percent drop. In contrast, Black Ops 6 is experiencing a bigger decline in player numbers compared to its predecessor.

The drop in CoD BO6 playercount may be attributed to the game's multi-platform release, including its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass. Additionally, the lack of a significant response from the player base on Steam following a new content update, such as the Squid Games event, suggests that the game may have lost momentum.

Black Ops 6's playerbase has suffered as the game has been plagued by issues and controversy since its launch. Critics have raised concerns about underwhelming events and expensive microtransactions. Additionally, skill-based matchmaking has been problematic, and the game's AI, maps, and artwork have all received negative feedback.

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Check out our other Call of Duty articles:

• "I feel like I've only got 1 kill" - COD pro struggles after trying mouse and keyboard for the first time in Black Ops 6
• Warzone's Squid Games 2 update has briefly re-enabled live pings in Ranked Play
• How to get all Squid Game 2 Operators in Black Ops 6 and Warzone