Call of Duty Is the Main Reason People Buy PS5, PS4, Says New Survey

What's the betting the survey was sent to people who predominitley play COD skewing the results in Sony's favour. Seems a thing that could be easily manipulated.

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forfty percent of all people know that.

Call of duty is the last thing i think about when buying a console. Actually, 2nd from last. Fifa would take that spot.

As someone who has to ride a bus with school kids every weekday, this is sadly not a surprise to me. COD, FIFA, and Fortnite is all they go on about. With a little GTV on occasion. It saddens me.

Well, back in the day, I had a high school friend that bough a ps4 specifically to play Fortnite and Call of Duty, so I don't doubt it.

I can tell you right now I'm definitely not one of those people. Up until 2015 I didn't even know what the hell call of duty was lol.

It's not surprising given how much of a recognized entity Call of Duty is and that it's had the PlayStation marketing for a while. I get consoles for the exclusives but one look at a sales chart and you'd have to be completely ignoring reality to think most people are buying consoles for first party releases when the list is dominated by multiplats.

54% of all percentages are made up on the spot.

Yeah Cod is huge, even some of my mates who play lots of different games play Cod every night. To be fair I used to as well, just fell off the Cod train.

Society really is doomed.

It might not be the only reason people buy a PS5 but it could be enough of a reason to make you reconsider and maybe purchase an Xbox instead - especially if your friends are thinking the same.

If your main games are COD and FIFA and you only play Sony’s first party games once in a blue moon, losing COD is a big deal. The exclusive games aren’t really a selling point for these people, it’s just a cool bonus. But take away COD (or any of their other mainstream games) and it’s an immediate dealbreaker. That’s why it needs to be stopped.

MS know exactly what they’re doing. Can’t beat the competition fairly… try something underhand instead.

This is most certainly disinformation. Look at the figures for active COD players every week and the number of players who own PlayStation consoles. Also polling really isn't accurate - see recent political polling among others.

I don't really care if this goes trew or don't I own a PlayStation for the exclusives ...I was more annoyed about Bethesda then this as I prefer there games only reason I'm considering getting a xbox now

its ridiculous to suggest that people buy a ps5 for multiplatform games like COD. they buy one because their friends who they play online with are on PlayStation if they were on xbox they would buy an xbox.

The proof is most definitely in the pudding. This is why Playstation does not want COD to be controlled by their biggest competitor. This is why Sony continues to pay for marketing deals on COD. Case closed!

So the PlayStation 4's 120 million consoles sold prove otherwise.

Like **** is it! Lots of great PlayStation exclusives that are all better than any COD game.

Just to be clear this was a survey done only in the UK correct? Where Sony seems to dominate and Nintendo can’t catch a break? Probably better Xbox numbers there than Japan but I feel like we would get different results in the US. Or anywhere else. UK seems like it’s own world for gaming.

I currently mostly play Fortnite on my PS5 and I’m thinking about giving Destiny 2 a go but I bought it for Ratchet & Clank and Horizon, which I’ll start closer to when the dlc drops.

Can’t blame Sony for using the stats though, it would be a blow if PS lost CoD. Or Fortnite. Or Minecraft.

Switch somehow has sold 120 million consoles without CoD though so it can be done.

so theyve proved COD is a major reason for Sony market dominance there job is to promote competition not maintain one platforms market dominance.

This is a depressing fact

I'm not really surprised at all. Back in the PS3 days I stopped playing a lot of games when CoD4 came along. Played that game every day until CoD WAW came along and even then I still jumped onto CoD4 for it's MP. Spent a lot of time on MW2 too. Not as much as CoD4 but was still a lot. Missed out on a lot of games because I was hooked to the first Resistance game too.

The only reason why I'm not much of a CoD player anymore (only like the single player now) is because I've outgrown them and I'm burned out. They will never have that CoD4 greatness again.

Since then I've found myself preferring a lot of other games instead. My taste in genres grew a lot after I had my taste of Ni No Kuni, my first JRPG. The older I get the more I've moved away from it. I'd say many new and younger players today would have that same enjoyment as I once had.

Going by those results Sony should be allowed to buy Activision instead. 😁

Love seeing all the ones trying to show how cool they are that they don't play popular casual games. "Oh I wouldn't touch that ever in my life, I'm a real gamer! Anyone who does is beneath me and society is doomed!" 😂😂😂😂

My 60 year old dad bought a PS5 just to play COD with his metal detecting friends…

Those percentages don't even add up.
To summarise the stats mentioned here, what we're looking at is:

88% of players buy a playstation for a particular game
73% out of 88% of users (so 64% o players) said that Call of Duty was the game they bought Playstation for

69% of players bought Playstation for platform exclusives (if we're talking about 69% of 88%, then that's 61%)

45% of players bought a playstation for GTAV (if we're talking about 45% of 88%, that's 40%)

So either, the statements above are accounting for 178% of playstation players (64% + 69% + 45%)

Or, they account for 165% of playstation players (64% + 61% + 40%)

Or, people got to choose multiple options in the poll, in which case saying "64% (73% of 88%) of players only bought a playstation to play Call of Duty" is a bunch of rubbish, because the vast majority of them must have also picked other games on the list for these stats to even begin to make sense.

edit: OK, to be fair in the article it does say: 88 per cent of users buy PlayStation due to the availability of one or more games

my misunderstanding is down to PushSquare using the term "that game", which heavily implies that it was the only game the player was interested in when they bought the console, which simply doesn't seem to be true:

"And of that 88%, a whopping 73% said Call of Duty was that game."

@ItsBritneyB_tch is paying for exclusive content, timed early access to beta content, xp boosts and marketing rights also a fair practice? Especially when other platforms are charged the same price for the end product with "missing" content? Didn't the spec ops from modern warfare have a 12 month timed exclusivity window on PlayStation? I'm pretty sure some of the zombies modes also had similar timed exclusivity.

"It might not be the only reason people buy a PS5 but it could be enough of a reason to make you reconsider and maybe purchase an Xbox instead - especially if your friends are thinking the same."

Doesn't your statement currently hold true for people considering buying an Xbox, but who also play a considerable amount of call of duty?

I'm not pretending Microsoft are innocent of pursuing similar practices, but let's not pretend Sony aren't guilty of underhand tactics.

Ermmm no it isnt

I really cant believe COD is that popular and loved.

so I've worked out that if 73% of the people who bought a console with particular games in mind bought it for COD, and 69% of them bought it for PS exclusives, that means that a minimum of 57% of people who bought a PS4/PS5 for COD also bought it for PS exclusive games. That's if the whole 27% who didn't say "COD" did say "PS exclusives", which they might not have done.

In summary, COD is absolutely a juggernaut but it's really not the only reason these people buy a Playstation, as is being implied here

Probably the reason why Microsoft wants this, to make it a reason why gamers buy their machine

Not attempting to be argumentative here, but with the possibility of CoD becoming fully owned by Xbox, doesn't it stand to reason that a percentage (possibly a large percentage) of those polled might cite CoD as there number one reason for buying a PlayStation because they believe that particular response might sway these Regulators into preventing the ABK buyout? Personally, I wouldn't put much faith in these figures.

Exclusives sell everyone, COD sells the very casual gamer, which leads more people to the exclusives, Sony has been riding the prefect storm of both for awhile now.
I don't judge anyone for playing COD, I got away from it because they've stopped properly supporting the actual classic COD multiplayer in favor of Warzone.

Isn't this the poll that specifically asked a sample of 40,000 players, all of them CoD players?

Like....you'd hope that 80% of a group of CoD players would say they bought their console for CoD? 80% of a group of Disgaia players probably bought their console for Disgaia, too....

Wow, if true, that's kind of sad. I mean, I enjoy COD as much as the next person and have played the current iteration to the point of boredom with it, having maxed out my level and all guns. But considering the wealth of quality titles on Playstation (God Of War as just ONE example), you'd think their exclusives would be the primary buying driver. Oh well, no accounting for taste I guess.....

Despite the weird numbers in this poll, there is for sure a significant number of people that almost exclusively play COD on PlayStation. I have a few friends that do. One guy plays Apex all the time. It’s an easy game to log in, play with friends and challenge yourself competitively. If it wasn’t available on PlayStation, most of these people would have no qualms about buying another system.
Sony must be worried, they have the data of how many users are playing COD.

Is it really? But random person said they don't care about COD and that Sony should simply make their own fps game and call it a day.

I used to care a lot about COD but that was many years ago. The reason why I bought and moved to PlayStation was for the exclusives.

A lot of people seem to really have a hard time understanding that they aren't the majority opinion. If you're on a site like this, IGN, Gamespot etc, then you are not the mainstream casual audience. There are millions and millions of people who are less invested in the ecosystem than you are and just want the new version of the things they like.

@rjejr are you seriously suggesting the switch isn't popular in the UK?

Good grief. Clearly, you don't live here. The switch was the best selling console in 2022.

The main reason i bought a ps5/ps4/ps3 was god of war,uncharted,infamous etc not call of duty.

Not surprising at all. CoD, FIFA and Fortnite are all a lot of people care about.

I don’t get why this is an argument against the buy-out. Could anyone please enlighten me?

@Friendly Because MS is downplaying the impact of CoD on platform choice while PS is doing the opposite.

I own call of duty. But was definitely not the reason to buy playstation.

I think 73% is shockingly high. I think the aggregate average should be closer to 25%, and even then, that is massive. All the kids in my extended family only play one of COD, Roblox or Fortnite on their consoles exclusively so depending on what demographic they surveyed this is entirely possible. This should be used by evidence to block the deal.

Mainstream gaming is so sad.

@solocapers The Switch just passed Xbox One in November. Seems like Nintendo has never been as popular in the UK. See this article from Nov just a few months ago and a lot of the 111 comments agree w/ that sentiment.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/11/switch-sales-have-only-now-surpassed-the-xbox-one-in-the-uk

@Marquez I read the article closely so I'm aware, but I'm guessing if you did a survey of a people who replied and asked where the data come from half of them say "the US" b/c we're a self serving lot and the other half say "IDK". 😂

Boy am I glad I'm not one of those people

There needed to be an option in the survey for "I only get CoD on PlayStation because those times they gave it to me for free with the subscription I buy for other things."

@NomNom If this is the same survey I'm thinking of it's a really weird, skewed, and broken survey, where it's a small sample group, and it's a sample group consisting only of CoD players, so it's not that 73% of a huge swath of PS players in the UK bought their PS for CoD, it's that 73% of people that play CoD on PS in the UK bought their PS because of CoD. So it shows that dedicated CoD players buy their console because of their favorite game, but it doesn't really say anything about why....everyone else....buys the console. Whatever the numbers are, I'm sure FIFA outnumbers CoD, and Fortnite probably crushes both.

Still it's depressing that while we talk about how much gaming has grown, what we really mean is that tons of people that don't really play games now play CoD, Fortnite, or Fifa, and are willing to pay $600 to do so....just to play that thing. I suspect if instead of a console that plays thousands of games, they just sold a literal "COD Machine" and a literal "Fortnite" machine. No digital store, no physical media, just a $500 box that plays one game, it would sell like crazy.

This is both sad and depressing.

@Marquez Polite is good. It's something I aspire too but fail miserably at.

I bought my first ps4 so I could play Bloodborne. Never played shooters like CoD there because of my terrible controller aim.

@PaperAlien the sad thing is how people still find COD fun , little kids have to be the majority sales because COD hasn’t been nearly as good as a decade ago

still waiting for a COD to be better than MW1/2/3 and black ops 1&2

Poor taste and no eye for deals that's the people who buy call of duty

It's a well knowing fact COD dictates where people play & what console they buy because they used to say it also what my friends are buying, it always has since the Xbox 360. All the casuals that buy COD hence the numbers COD pulls in in sales, so yes you want COD on your platform or risk losing players.

Weirdly enough on MW2 multiplayer I see more Xbox players than I do other PS players in almost every match. You can go to lobby summary and see which platform family everyone in the lobby is using.

Most matches I end up in the majority of the players are on Xbox. PC and PS are usually tied but sometimes there’s more PS players than PC players.

Granted this is very anecdotal. And I’m sure it varies greatly from server to server. I usually play on south east US servers, which are located in Alabama if I’m not mistaken.

I started keeping track because I was just interested in seeing which platform I see the most. I was expecting it to be PlayStation but I was very shocked to see mostly Xbox players, at least on the most local servers close to me.

That’s a survey taken out of context if I ever read one. I bought an Xbox Series X because it has exclusives I want. It also has the same multi platform games. I didn’t buy either console for the multi platform titles, I bought them for the exclusives. Also if multi platform titles were a deciding factor then more people would’ve bought Xbox because MS resolved their supply chain issues a few months earlier than Sony

@Ajfennell77 Bethesda games always ran better on Xbox anyway. I bought a Xbox the past 2 generations to go along side my Playstation for that very reason.

@Friendly Sony is saying it would hurt their bottom line if MS made it Xbox exclusive only.

I am more concerned that 12% of PlayStation owners bought one for the availability of no games. Maybe they bought the PS5 as a conversation piece or maybe to scalp and now stock is high and they have stitched themselves up?

@bindiana perhaps. But ... while I don't play cod another way to look at it is people prefer to play cod on playstation compared to other platforms, and taking away that choice should be prevented. Just like Bethesda titles, but that's a battle already lost.

I brought the ps5 soley for GT7, bet theres a few of them around too

the truth: Call of Duty exclusive deals that Sony paid for Is the Main Reason the large COD player base Buys PS5, PS4. if Xbox gets exclusive content and adds the game to game pass we'll see the console sales become even or xbox exceeds ps

@Kidfunkadelic83 sadly that's just you, if you go check the top played games and top games that make revenue everyday you'll find Call of duty on top 5 list while the games you buy a console for are not even on the top 50 most played games.

Percentages and statistics are very easily used to tell almost any story the statistician would like.
Although there may be some truth in this assertion, I do not know one person who specifically purchased a PlayStation console to play cod. And most of my friends play it (I never have and never will). I do have a friend that got his PS4 to play Fifa, and upgraded to a PS5 for the loading times but most of my friends picked up a PS5 because they were already in the ecosystem. One of my friends became a PlayStation convert after borrowing my PS4 and playing Spiderman. Funnily enough I'm the only one in my friends group who bought a PS5 specifically for GT7.

Am I the only one who be buying a playstation not for call of duty..