It's always a special year when two of the biggest FPS franchises in gaming go head-to-head. Battlefield and Call of Duty have been competing against each other for as long as I can remember having a gaming platform, and historically, one of those names has always come out on top. This year, though, things are looking... different.

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After Battlefield 2042's disastrous launch that left the game unable to ever recover fully, Battlefield 6 had a lot to prove, and prove it did. It's one of the strongest returns to form for any franchise, ever, and it just so happens to be locking heads, once again, with a Call of Duty entry, that is Black Ops 7, over the holiday season. Barring the campaign, Battlefield 6 has clearly proven itself to be a fantastic game in every way, and it's still going strong on the Steam charts. If ever there was a year that DICE and EA's shooter could overtake Activision's baby, it's this one.

Battlefield 6 could be a turning point in the franchises' histories

It's now or never for DICE's underdog

For as long as the two franchises have existed side by side, Call of Duty has always been the bigger beast. It's the game your aunt picks up at Walmart for your Christmas gift because she's heard of it somewhere before. It's the brand that's too big to fail, even when sometimes, it should have. The Battlefield series, on the other hand, has always been the underdog. The cooler, more cinematic, more explosive underdog, sure, but still an underdog nevertheless.

That's what makes Battlefield 6 such a fascinating turning point. Because if this game, the most well-received Battlefield since the golden era of Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, can't finally outsell Call of Duty, then it's probably never going to happen. For once, Battlefield has both the momentum and the morale. It's sitting pretty among Steam's top five most-played games for nearly a month straight, and that's not even counting console players. Its final beta peaked at half a million concurrent players, and by comparison, Black Ops 7's beta barely cracked 70,000. Heck, Activision even went ahead and made Black Ops 6 completely free during Battlefield 6's launch week just to stay in the conversation. Still, history tells a sobering tale: Battlefield may win hearts, but the newest COD title in town always wins wallets.

Everything seems to be going DICE's way

The holiday multiplayer season seems to have forgotten Black Ops 7

The good news for Battlefield 6 is that it made a fantastic comeback that can't be overstated at all. DICE has managed to rebuild trust after Battlefield 2042, and when many of us assumed the franchise was done for, the latest entry blew us all out of the water. DICE still knows how to make utter chaos and emergent gameplay feel stunningly beautiful.

Yet, the campaign was serviceable at best, but thankfully, that's not what people come to Battlefield for. The multiplayer is where the game absolutely soars with its dynamic, cinematic, unpredictable, inimitable, and infinitely replayable gameplay. The gunplay? Solid. The map design? A sweet spot between scale and structure. And the destruction? It creates some of the most breathtaking moments in the series' history.

If there was ever a moment for Battlefield to steal the crown, this is it.

This is the Battlefield that fans have long been asking for, and it's also the most technically polished Battlefield launch in years, which says a lot given the franchise's history of needing three patches to get good. If there were ever a moment for Battlefield to steal the crown, this is it. Black Ops 7 doesn't have the hyper Call of Duty once did. Its marketing cycle has been rather quiet, and its beta turnout was alarmingly low. And while Battlefield 6 has been trending on social media thanks to jaw-dropping clips of the "least cinematic Battlefield moments", Black Ops 7 has barely been a blip in the cultural radar. So why is it still an uphill battle?

Black Ops 7 is going to be no slouch, either

There's a reason this game sells like hotcakes every single time

Let's be real here for a second. Black Ops 7 isn't going to just roll over and die. Sure, that co-op campaign announcement left a lot of fans, myself included, with raised eyebrows and a mild existential crisis about what happened to old-school solo storytelling. But once you look past that, it's clear that Treyarch is still bringing its A-game. The beta was slick, optimized, and fast-paced in a way only Call of Duty can pull off. Gunplay feels tighter, movement is the best it's ever been, and the overall polish is exactly what you'd expect from the most consistent sub-series in the franchise.

Then, there's Zombies, which is easily one of the strongest reasons Black Ops 7 will print money regardless of campaign fatigue. Treyarch knows this mode better than anyone, and it's shaping up to be peak Zombies again: addictive, replayable, and packed with lore that fans can spend months decoding. Make no mistake — this is still a heavyweight fight.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Action
FPS
Sci-Fi
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 65/100 Critics Rec: 36%
Released
November 14, 2025
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs
Developer(s)
Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher(s)
Activision
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5 Images
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
Engine
IW Engine
Genre(s)
Action, FPS, Sci-Fi

History dictates that Battlefield can't Goliath

Even the worst Call of Duty games have outsold the best Battlefield titles

It's an uphill battle for one reason alone — Call of Duty transcended 'game' status long ago, and now, it's tradition. It's the name engraved in the DNA of mainstream gaming. It's the name every parent thinks of when they see their kid playing a game with a rifle on the screen. Every single year, the Call of Duty juggernaut rolls in and sweeps up sales numbers that look impossible on paper and defy all logic if you're looking at online forums and Reddit threads. Even when it's a bad title, it sells better than Battlefield at its best.

Bad Company 2, for countless players, is the best Battlefield ever, and yet, it sold 12 million copies, while the COD from that year, the first Black Ops title, hit and crossed 30 million units sold. A year later, Battlefield 3 came on stronger with 20+ million sales, which sounds massive, until you remember that Modern Warfare 3 sold over 31 million copies. Heck, even 2013's Ghosts, which is one of the weakest COD entries ever, sold 28 million copies to Battlefield 4's 15-odd million units pushed.

Battlefield is the gourmet burger place down the street — it makes a mean meal, but not everyone's visiting.

The closest Battlefield ever got to outselling Call of Duty was with 2016's Battlefield 1, which was arguably one of the finest shooters of its generation, and yet, even it couldn't outsell Infinite Warfare, which still holds one of the most downvoted trailers ever on YouTube. Sure, Infinite Warfare managed to move past Battlefield 1 with its Modern Warfare Remastered addition, and the Battlefield crowd was still reeling from Visceral Games' addition to the series that was Hardline, but ultimately, even its WW1 brilliance didn't move the needle for Battlefield that year.

The truth is, Battlefield has always been cooler than Activision's franchise, if every voice online is to be heard. Sadly, it's just never been bigger. Consider COD a fast-food chain of shooters with its familiarity, instant gratification, and omnipresence. On the other hand, Battlefield could be likened to a gourmet burger place you know down the street – not everyone's going to be visiting it, but it sure does make a mean meal.

The vibe war is Battlefield's. The sales war, not so much

There's no denying that DICE's game wins the vibe war

If there's one war Battlefield consistently wins, it's the vibe war. Battlefield 6 is full of moments that no other game can replicate. I've leapt off a skyscraper as jets dogfight around me, sniped a pilot midair, and watched entire structures crumble in synchronized destruction, all in a single game, more often than I can count. These moments flood our social feeds, and there's a moment in every single round of multiplayer in Battlefield that makes you stop and stare in awe at the events unfolding around you.

That's what the Battlefield experience has always been about — stories written by chaos instead of the developers. Every match becomes a memory. And yet, the vibe wars don't pay the bills. Call of Duty has mastered the art of commercial omnipresence with crossovers, celebrity skins, Twitch campaigns, seasonal battle passes, and a streamlined sense of accessibility. Battlefield has never really played that game, and now that it is learning the ropes, it's just too late. It's not built for the casual after-work crowd or for people who just want to jump into a five-minute deathmatch. It's built for spectacle instead, for players who want their shooters to feel like playable war movies.

So, yes, Battlefield 6 has won the hearts of gamers and might even have more concurrent players even after Black Ops 7 releases, but Call of Duty will, as always, be the frontrunner for winning the Christmas morning purchase war.

Does Battlefield even need to win, though?

Here's the twist — maybe it doesn't have to

Battlefield 6 is in an incredibly healthy position right now. It's dominating Steam charts, it's critically praised for its multiplayer, and it's brought the entire community back together after nearly a decade of division. That's already a massive victory. Now, let's face it — Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will almost certainly outsell it, but that won't erase the fact that DICE achieved a full-blown redemption arc this time around.

Besides, COD itself isn't in the strongest position it's ever been. Black Ops 7's campaign is going to be co-op, with a grindfest of a PvE endgame, turning what used to be a story-driven single-player mode into an online affair. The experiment could easily alienate fans who just want a good old-fashioned narrative.

So, maybe it's time we stopped measuring Battlefield by Call of Duty's standards. Sales figures will never define legacy, and Battlefield's finest moments have always been about chaos, camaraderie, and sheer cinematic awe, all of which are things you can't quantify in sales charts.

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Battlefield 6
FPS
War & Military
Action
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 83/100 Critics Rec: 89%
Released
October 10, 2025
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s)
Battlefield Studios
Publisher(s)
EA
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7 Images
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
Engine
Frostbite
Genre(s)
FPS, War & Military, Action

Battlefield 6's sales so far could be week-one numbers for Black Ops 7

When Battlefield and Call of Duty trade blows, firing on all cylinders, the only real winner is the players.

As of November 2025, Battlefield 6 has sold over 10 million copies, and, in all honesty, those might be week-one numbers for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. That's the strength of Activision's machine. And maybe that's okay. Battlefield 6 has already achieved becoming the best game in the franchise in over a decade, and honestly, it doesn't need to outsell COD.

And if both games succeed, it's even better. Because when Battlefield and Call of Duty trade blows at their strongest as they fire on all cylinders, the only real winner is us, the players, who get to enjoy the spoils of their eternal rivalry.