Call of Duty
GameBy Infinity Ward · Released Oct 29, 2003
Documents about Call of Duty
Battle Royale Resurgence on Live Streaming
The Battle Royale genre is experiencing a period of stabilization and modest recovery following a significant decline in live-streaming engagement.
- Battle Royale viewership is heavily concentrated in five franchises—Garena Free Fire, PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone—which collectively account for nearly all genre engagement.
- Mobile titles are the primary drivers of the genre, with Garena Free Fire, PUBG Mobile, and Battlegrounds Mobile India generating 1.1 billion hours watched in H1 2026, significantly outpacing the 821 million hours from PC and console counterparts.
- After peaking in 2020, Battle Royale viewership hit a record low of 340 million hours in Q4 2025, a decline largely attributed to the rise of competing Extraction Shooters like ARC Raiders.
July's Top PlayStation Games by Copies
The July 2026 gaming market analysis highlights a significant trend toward nostalgia-driven consumption on the PlayStation platform.
- The re-release of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 on PlayStation generated $435 million in revenue during July, with Sony retaining approximately $130 million from its 30% platform cut.
- Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced sold 1.6 million copies on PS5 in July, generating $109 million and outperforming the title's combined sales on Steam and Xbox.
- The graphical remake of Halo: Combat Evolved underperformed on PlayStation, selling only 351,000 copies in July at a $60 price point, which the report attributes to poor pricing strategy.
July 2026's Top New PC & Console Games
This analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the video game industry landscape for July 2026, focusing on market performance, platform trends, and notable new releases across PC and console sectors.
- The Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remaster was a major July 2026 commercial success, grossing over $200 million with more than 1 million units sold on Steam and over 2 million combined on PlayStation and Xbox.
- EA Sports FC 26 maintains a massive player base with approximately 10 million daily active users, with over 75% of that traffic on PlayStation consoles and only 5% on Steam.
- The $10 co-optional title Shift At Midnight emerged as a viral hit in July 2026, reaching 37,000 concurrent users on Steam and selling nearly 1 million units.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake and the Most Anticipated Games of 2026
The gaming industry landscape for 2026 is defined by a tension between established legacy franchises and the overwhelming market dominance of upcoming blockbuster releases.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is projected to be the most anticipated game of 2026, excluding Grand Theft Auto 6, due to its status as one of the highest-rated games of all time and its potential appeal to a new generation of Zelda fans.
- The upcoming Ocarina of Time remake is expected to be a one-to-one remake, similar to the 3DS remaster which sold 6.4 million units, rather than a redesigned game like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom.
- Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled for release on October 23rd, just under a month before Grand Theft Auto 6, and is a key title for Activision Blizzard and Microsoft's strategy to focus on core franchises.
How Brands Can Reach Gen Z Gamers Without Disrupting Gameplay
The primary objective is to provide marketers with strategies for engaging Gen Z gamers without utilizing intrusive advertising formats that degrade the user experience.
- Gen Z gamers are highly sensitive to traditional advertising, with 43% stating that interruptive ads can ruin their gaming experience.
- Overwolf Ads utilizes native formats like Rewarded Achievements, which trigger branded content based on real-time gameplay events such as goals or eliminations to avoid disrupting play.
- Branded Mods allow brands to integrate directly into community-created content; a Crocs campaign across 12 mods in eight games achieved over 49,000 downloads and a 6.9% lift in brand consideration.
Dead Space Creator Glen Schofield Is Retiring
The retirement of industry veteran Glen Schofield marks a significant moment for the video game sector, highlighting the ongoing challenges creators face in securing funding for large-scale projects.
- Glen Schofield, known for his work on Dead Space and Call of Duty, is retiring from video game development.
- Schofield's retirement follows his struggle to secure funding for his desired AAA projects.
- The announcement was made by Schofield in a video posted on LinkedIn.
Xbox Presses Reset
As of July 2026, Xbox has initiated a significant strategic reset in response to persistent financial underperformance and the failure of its long-term Game Pass subscription model.
- Xbox is undergoing a major strategic reset as of July 2026, involving the layoff of 3,200 staff members and the divestment of five game businesses, including Double Fine, Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.
- The Game Pass subscription model failed to meet its 70-million-subscriber target, stagnating at 30 million, which led to the cannibalization of premium sales and a $300 million loss on the day-one launch of Call of Duty.
- Xbox’s hardware install base of 35 million units significantly trails the PlayStation 5’s 94 million, contributing to the conclusion that the company's high-budget premium model is financially unsustainable.
Sony to Cease Production of Physical PlayStation Game Discs in 2028
Sony announced that from January 2028 all new PlayStation titles will be released exclusively in digital format, with no physical discs sold for the PS4, PS5 or future consoles.
- Sony will cease production of physical game discs for new PlayStation titles starting January 2028, shifting to a digital-only distribution model for new releases.
- This move is driven by declining consumer interest in physical media, with over 90% of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games purchased digitally in the past year.
- Sony will continue to sell games in physical retailers after 2028, but the format (e.g., boxes with codes, digital redemption cards) is currently undefined.
Why Did PlayStation Buy Bungie in the First Place?
PlayStation’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie in 2022 was fundamentally driven by a strategic imperative to transition from a reliance on traditional single-player experiences toward a sustainable live-service model.
- PlayStation acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in January 2022 to gain expertise in live service games and leverage Bungie's hit live service game, Destiny, as PlayStation's first-party software business struggled to grow beyond 20-30 million sales for its single-player titles.
- Bungie's recent releases, Destiny 2's 'Monument of Triumph' expansion (June 9th) and 'Marathon' (March), have not achieved high numbers, with Marathon peaking at 2 million players, indicating the acquisition has not yet met expectations for PlayStation's live service ambitions.
- PlayStation's strategy to expand into live service games involved commissioning external studios (e.g., Arrowhead, Firewalk Studios) and internal teams (e.g., Insomniac, Naughty Dog) for new titles, a departure from its historical approach of acquiring studios only after prior collaborations.
Asian Games SEA MLBB Qualifiers: 2026 Popularity Analysis
The 2026 Asian Games Southeast Asian Mobile Legends: Bang Bang qualifiers have risen to the top-ten most popular esports events worldwide, eclipsing traditional titles such as Mid-Season Invitational and PUBG Nations Cup.
- The Asian Games SEA MLBB Qualifiers for 2026 ranked as the tenth most popular esports tournament of 2026 so far, achieving a Peak Viewership of 1,278,586.
- The peak audience for the qualifiers occurred during the match between Malaysia and Indonesia, which garnered over 1.27 million concurrent viewers.
- This event is the fourth Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) tournament to enter the top ten most popular esports events of 2026, highlighting the game's significant viewership.
Sharma's Next 100 Days
The article examines the first 100 days of Asha Sharma’s tenure as CEO of Microsoft’s Xbox division, framing her leadership shift from a content-centric to a distribution-centric strategy.
- Asha Sharma's new leadership at Xbox marks a strategic shift from a games executive managing a platform (Phil Spencer era) to a platform operator running a games business, focusing on distribution innovation over content innovation.
- Xbox is in a financially "unhealthy spot," with software sales declining from $5.7 billion to $5.3 billion last quarter and hardware sales down 33%, exacerbated by a nearly 3x increase in memory and storage costs since Sharma took over.
- Sharma's key initial move was cutting Game Pass Ultimate's price from $29.99 to $22.99 on April 21, 2026, which successfully returned the service to growth in revenue and retention after an 8-month decline, despite new Call of Duty titles being delayed by a year.
2026's Top Xbox Games by New Game Pass Players
The analysis examines the impact of the Xbox Game Pass subscription model on first-party and third-party game revenue during the first half of 2026.
- Xbox's Game Pass is cannibalizing first-party game revenue, with the company operating on a 3% accountability margin, prompting a likely shake-up of the service.
- Forza Horizon 6, a day-and-date Game Pass release on April 19, attracted 6.8 million Game Pass players but generated $270 million on Xbox alone, indicating potential lost sales from committed players who would have purchased the game.
- Subnautica 2, another day-one Game Pass title released May 14, drew 3.5 million Game Pass players on Xbox but sold only 100,000 copies on the platform, compared to 5.4 million copies and $130 million in revenue on Steam where it is not part of a subscription service.
Companies behind it
- Activisionpublisher, developer517
Microsoftdeveloper, publisher, owner1,080
Activision Blizzarddeveloper, publisher, owner413- Xbox Game Studiospublisher13
Overwolfowner23
Nintendoowner1,391
As the documents state it.