Black Ops 6 propels CoD to highest Steam player count in 2024

After two years of declining player numbers, Black Ops 6 finally restored Call of Duty to its former glory with a successful launch day.

Modern Warfare peaked at 190,273 concurrent players on Steam during the game’s launch weekend, falling disappointingly short of MW2’s mark of 262,875. The massive drop-off raised concerns, but the seeds of dissent were planted much earlier than MW3’s official release date.

In March 2023, MW2 and Warzone 2 player count numbers plummeted to a record low of 87,000. Some community members feared the franchise was heading in the wrong direction, but Black Ops 6 restored order.

Our early BO6 review argued that gameplay feels better than ever, and players are flocking to Zombies over Multiplayer after “amazing” reviews.

That excitement showed on Steam Charts as BO6 surpassed 229,000 players, reaching the highest player count in over a year.

BO6 failed to eclipse the all-time peak reached just under two years ago when CoD brought in over 491,000 concurrent players, but this is a step in the right direction, and fans celebrated the achievement.

“That’s what happens when Treyarch makes a good CoD,” one commenter responded.

“when you make good games goood things happen to you,” a second user added.

In addition to positive sentiment around Zombies, the Campaign received glowing reviews. Because despite being relatively short, Treyarch crammed a gripping story into a compact 11 mission package.

Continued success moving forward depends on a heavily supported post-launch content plan and how fans feel after the honeymoon period is over.

CoD pros Dashy and Shotzzy slammed BO6’s “dogs**t” maps and pleaded for classic Black Ops map remasters. Treyarch confirmed that the iconic black Ops 1 map Nuketown is being faithfully remastered for a future update, but it’s not a good sign when players already aren’t satisfied with the current map pool.