You’re going to go to Avalon, where there are no loadouts and all of your killing tools must be scavenged off the bodies of your enemies. It’s a massive place with an ever-shrinking boundary in which your squad of four must fight for every inch of ground you gain against no less than 25 other teams.

Your loadout is dependent on what you’re able to find, but upgrading gear is shaping up to be quite seamless, per this deep dive on the official website for those who want the full rundown of what this one brings to the table. The short version is that your weapons come with unique Archetypes, and finding one you like lets you upgrade it via Attachment Kits, improving on its rarity with apparently immediate effects. You’re going to need every advantage you can get as your opponents are going to come at you on land, from the air, and even from the water, depending on the vehicles they’re able to gain access to.

Of course, the same goes for you and your team. It’s a free-for-all with a lot of cool stuff, and it should keep Call of Duty: Warzone fans occupied for hours. Blackout players will find a lot of familiar tools like the Sensor Dart, Trauma Kit, Grappling Hook, and the return of the Perk System, albeit in a streamlined form.

Blacks Ops Royale is free to play and drops on March 12 at 9 PM PT. You can check out the trailer and all its chaos below.

Why is that a problem? The Call of Duty App doesn’t just include Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which launched last year to underwhelming reviews due to its campaign. It also tracks Black Ops 6, Warzone, the Modern Warfare series, and much more. Keep in mind that these player counts follow Holiday discounts and even a free week. The sad part is that this isn’t even the lowest in the past week, as it reached 39,015 peak concurrent players on January 8th.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped last November’s US sales charts (even if Battlefield 6 emerged as the top-selling premium game of 2026). Engagement with the app on consoles in the region was also as strong as ever, only lagging behind Fortnite and eking out ahead of Grand Theft Auto 5.

Nevertheless, Activision has pivoted significantly by announcing that it would no longer release back-to-back Modern Warfare and Black Ops titles. “We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.” Its developers have apparently been building the “next era of Call of Duty,” and judging by the current release cycle, it may be Modern Warfare 4.

In the meantime, check out our review for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 here. We gave it a five out of ten for the multiplayer (despite netcode and hit registration issues), and Zombies (despite the overtly safe gameplay loop). The campaign is an utter disaster, but at least Treyarch released an update to let you skip it and go straight to Endgame.

As caught by Insider Gaming, this comes from TheGhostOfHope, who has in the past proven to be reliable with leaks about the franchise. “Modern Warfare 4 Multiplayer in its current state is currently a complete copy of Modern Warfare II except for no perk charging system and less ADS/slide penalties,” they wrote on social media.

“There is A TON of visual recoil on weapons in Modern Warfare 4 just like Modern Warfare II. Like I said in my last tweet it’s pretty much a complete copy outside of a few little things.”

While Infinity Ward hasn’t made any concrete statements regarding the matter, the studio also took to social media to wish its fans happy holidays. Along with this, the studio wrote that Call of Duty fans shouldn’t believe everything they read on the Internet, before signing off from social media for the rest of the year.

‘Happy holidays everybody! Wishing our community an awesome holiday season and looking forward to talking soon,” wrote Infinity Ward. “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. See you in 2026.”

In response to Infinity Ward’s statement, TheGhostOfHope wrote yet another post where he said that the studio typically hasn’t responded to these leaks in the past. The fact that it has gone out of its way to try and “generically deny” two recent leaks, notes the leaker, “should raise some red flags”. Further, TheGhostOfHope also wrote that they still have the same sources they had with their previous leaks regarding games like Modern Warfare 2 and 3, and Black Ops 6 and 7.

“The fact that a billion dollar studio has gone out of its way to *generically* deny 2 of my most recent leaks when they’ve never done it before nor towards others is frankly very weird and should raise some red flags about why they’d do such a thing when they never did it before. I have largely kept the same sources for years and my MW4 leak is no different to that. I would never sink my reputation with COD leaking that I’ve built over the years on faulty unverified info,” wrote the leaker.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S just last month. For more details, take a look at our review. Also check out Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty noting that it has been “one of the most-played games on Xbox”.

As for the future of the franchise, you can check out what analysts have had to say about the performance of Black Ops 7, and our own thoughts about its current state and what might happen with future releases.

“Call of Duty has enjoyed long-standing success because of all of you, a passionate community that demands excellence and deserves nothing less,” it said in a recent blog post. “We also know that for some of you, the franchise has not met your expectations fully. To be very clear, we know what you expect and rest assured we will deliver, and overdeliver, on those expectations as we move forward.”

For Black Ops 7, the goal was for “a spiritual successor to Black Ops 2, and the studios have poured their passion into making a great game that all of us are very proud of.” Of course, the results left much to be desired, and Activision is seemingly aware. “It’s one thing for us to say it; more importantly, it’s up to you to try it and judge for yourselves.”

As a result, you’ll no longer see back-to-back sequels for Modern Warfare (which suffered similar criticism with 2023’s Modern Warfare 3). The reasons for this move are “many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year.”

“We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.”

It went on to state that the “best days are ahead of us, given the depth and talent of our development teams” and that it’s been building the “next era of Call of Duty.” “It will deliver precisely on what you want, along with some surprises that push the franchise and the genre forward. We look forward to welcoming you in, listening to you, and moving forward together.”

As for the not-so-distant future, there will be a free trial for multiplayer and Zombies, where Activision would appreciate it if you “experience the game firsthand and decide for yourselves.” Not the campaign, though, which it probably wants you to pretend doesn’t exist, please, and thank you.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out our review for more details on why it’s one of the worst entries in the series (so far).

Recently, however, Activision executive Peter Kelly – head of creative on Call of Duty – revealed sales figures for three Call of Duty games in a December court filing, as caught and reported by Game File– and the numbers are unsurprisingly high.

As per the court filing, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has sold over 30 million units worldwide since its release in 2019. Meanwhile, the title preceding it – 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot – stands at over 41 million units sold worldwide. Then there’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which has sold over 43 million units since releasing close to a decade ago in November 2015.

Call of Duty games selling staggering numbers isn’t the most surprising thing in the world- and as per the aforementioned court filing, the series certainly needs to sell that much if it is to turn a profit against its eye-watering development costs, with the aforementioned Black Ops Cold War’s development costing as much as over $700 million. Read more on that through here.

Caught and reported by Game File, development budget figures for three Call of Duty titles were revealed by Activision’s Patrick Kelly – who is head of creative on the Call of Duty franchise – in official court filings in December. As per the filing, 2020’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War had a development budget of over $700 million, 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot stands at over $640 million, while 2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 stands at over $450 million.

Kelly states in the filing that those figures cover “development costs over the game’s lifecycle” for each, suggesting that costs associated with developing each title’s post-launch content are included.

That said, it’s also worth noting that these figures only cover development costs- marketing costs, which usually tend to be just as high as development costs for AAA titles (especially for something like Call of Duty), are bound to take the total budget figures radically higher for the three aforementioned titles. Then again, all three titles have also sold exceedingly well, based on figures revealed by Kelly in the filing.

This puts Call of Duty at the top of the list of highest game development budgets. However, it’s worth noting that information on that front is scarce at best, thanks to the consistent reluctance of developers and publishers to disclose relevant numbers. Notable examples in recent years have been limited to the likes of The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Concord, The Callisto Protocol, and others, though these newly revealed figures for Call of Duty put the shooter series far above any of those titles.

As reported by Washington Post, Activision has announced that the Call of Duty franchise has now sold over 500 million units worldwide to date across all of its instalments to date. Of course, major successes in the series like Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty Mobile are free-to-play titles, which means they don’t contribute to this figure- which makes it that much more impressive.

Interestingly enough, this makes Call of Duty the second-highest selling video game franchise to date, based on most recently shared numbers. Though Mario is still far ahead of it, the shooter series has now surpassed the likes of Tetris, Pokemon, and Grand Theft Auto.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

As per SteamDB, over the weekend following its release, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 saw a peak of of over 306,000 concurrent players on Steam. That’s higher than what both of its immediate predecessors managed upon their respective releases, with 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 seeing a peak of over 263,000 concurrent players, and last year’s Modern Warfare 3 enjoying a peak of over 190,000 players.

Given the fact that for the first time ever, Black Ops 6 is also available via PC Game Pass, that’s a particularly impressive number, and does suggest that the game could be enjoying similarly strong numbers on other platforms as well.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, and PS4.

As announced by Microsoft, on October 25 – which is the day that the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches – three titles from the franchise will become playable via Xbox Cloud Gaming. More specifically, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will be able to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, last year’s Callof Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Call of Duty: Warzone natively on Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Modern Warfare 3 is, of course, already available on Game Pass proper, while Black Ops 6 is set to follow suit on the day of its release later this month. Where the latter is concerned, its multiplayer and Zombies modes will only be available to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers. Read more on that through here.

Upon its launch later this month, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

As the third title in the reboot trilogy that began with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), the story sees Captain Price and Task Force 141 going after Vladimir Makarov. The title introduces Open Combat Missions, where players have more freedom to complete objectives. Multiplayer features 16 remastered maps from Modern Warfare 2 (2008), while Zombies is a PvEvP extraction shooter mode with some unique twists.

Launched in November 2023, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 received heavy criticism for its dull campaign, multiplayer matchmaking, story-telling and more (check out our review). It still performed well financially, topping sales charts in the US in November and December last year.

While Microsoft hasn’t mentioned other titles joining the catalogue anytime soon, Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available day one on October 25th. Head here for more details about the title and its upcoming beta.