While it seemed pretty clear that Battlefield 6 was going to have a big launch in the wake of early previews, few predicted that it would be on this scale.
EA and DICE have now revealed that Battlefield 6 sold 7 million copies in 3 days, a record for the Battlefield franchise. Past data we have has older games like Battlefield 3 with 5 million sales in its first week. Estimates of other games like Battlefield 1, V and 2042 range from 1.4 million to 4.2 million in around a week.
That 7 million copies is not just a record for Battlefield; this is Call of Duty-level launch sales, a high water mark that Battlefield has never reached. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare made $600 million in its first 3 days back in 2019. Now, in the era of $70 games, this is $490 million for Battlefield 6, except that’s a low estimate, given that many bought $100 premium versions of the game instead.
Activision has not been as forthcoming about sales units or dollar totals for Call of Duty in recent years. Last year in particular, Black Ops 6 was hamstrung by appearing on Xbox Game Pass, reducing unit sales by a significant margin. While Battlefield 6 is not passing all-time Call of Duty highs, even with incomplete data, it is likely that it has outsold at least few generations in this time window.
Battlefield 6 has had sky-high peaks on Steam, where it amassed 747,000 concurrent players at launch, setting records there for the series and nearing Steam’s all-time Top 10. That may have been a clue that big sales numbers were coming, and here we are.
The question, of course, is what happens this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, out a month from now on November 14. In any year that does not have a Rockstar or Harry Potter game, Call of Duty is the best-selling game of the year, but will these launch numbers match Battlefield 6’s? Given that once again, Black Ops 7 is releasing on Xbox Game Pass, the answer is almost certainly no. If they announce sales numbers, it will clearly have beaten BF6. If not, they clearly haven’t, as why would they hold that back? Uh oh. Battlefield 6 may be the most pressure put on Call of Duty as a franchise since…I don’t even know when, and it’s about time.
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