Addressing the issue of declining Call of Duty players, the commentator argues that the franchise should remove skill-based matchmaking and have community managers, producers, and other public-facing roles engage in more direct and transparent communication with players to win back those who have left. This viewpoint is the author's opinion; Activision, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games have not confirmed any plans to remove this mechanism.
Citing Circana data, the article notes that although many consider Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III one of the better-performing titles in recent years, its share of active players on consoles at launch in the US was still lower than that of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The PS5 share dropped from 23% to 19%, Xbox from 29% to 17%, while Steam's share rose from 1.5% to 4.2%.
The author believes that the decline in Xbox data was also influenced by Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launching on Game Pass, and views the overall performance against a backdrop of franchise fatigue, rising development costs, and the gradual loss of players post-pandemic. The article cites Tom Clancy's XDefiant, which quickly gained 1 million unique players after promoting its skill-based matchmaking-free system, and the open communication approach of Sledgehammer Games' developers as examples.
However, the article also acknowledges that XDefiant was eventually shut down due to issues such as technical debt, network code, progression systems, and lack of content. Additionally, Sledgehammer Games is working on a new sub-series title scheduled for release in 2027, which the author believes faces significant market risks.