The sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were always going to be absolutely fascinating because Microsoft has tampered with the franchise’s tried-and-trusted business model.
Traditionally, the series has relied on strong full-price sales, and then has enjoyed long-tail success through microtransactions released throughout the year. This year is different, however, as the Xbox maker has made the unprecedented decision to include the first-person shooter in Xbox Game Pass.
Our first indication of the impact this may have had emerged as part of the UK physical games charts, where PlayStation accounted for 88 per cent of the copies sold. Of course, with more and more consumers switching to digital, this only provided a very small portion of the overall picture.
Now we have digital data for Britain as well, as shared by Chris Dring on the Games Industry.biz Microcast – and it paints an interesting picture.