Battlefield 6 vs Call of Duty: Sales Comparison

Even before the release of Battlefield 6, the series had long been considered a direct competitor to Call of Duty, despite the two filling different niches within the military shooter genre. Battlefield is known for its open sandbox gameplay, while Call of Duty rose to prominence because of its arcade, arena shooter-adjacent style. BF6 is clearly aiming to emulate modern CoD‘s breadth of content as a live-service platform, and its incredible, record-breaking sales may have finally put it in the running.

Battlefield 6 is off to a blistering start, not only topping Call of Duty‘s all-time concurrent player peak on Steam, but achieving the 14th-highest all-time peak in Steam history. This does not, of course, take into account other platforms, but it’s still an astounding feat for a series coming off its worst-received entry ever, Battlefield 2042. Battlefield‘s return to form has clearly paid off initially, but is it really a legitimate competitor to the perennial bestseller?

Battlefield 6 Sold 7 Million Copies In 3 Days

A Series Record

According to a press release from publisher Electronic Arts and developer Battlefield Studios, Battlefield 6 has set a franchise record by “selling over seven million copies and counting” in its first three days. Another impressive stat claims these sales led to more than 172 million multiplayer matches being played during the long launch weekend (Friday, October 10 to Sunday, October 12).

Unfortunately for our comparison, we don’t always get such straightforward figures following a major AAA launch. Especially after Microsoft’s acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision and the series’ presence on Xbox Game Pass, it’s difficult to find comparable numbers for the series’ most recent entry, Black Ops 6. We can, however, go back a few years to 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 for a rough, but still eye-opening juxtaposition.

Modern Warfare 2 (2022) Made $800 Million In 3 Days

More Than 12x The GDP Of Tuvalu

Last year’s Call of Duty, Black Ops 6, only received vague allusions from Xbox about it being the biggest three-day opening in series history “in terms of total players, hours played, and total matches,” per Variety, which also notes that these claims were not accompanied by any numbers. 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 has some more concrete data: Kotaku reported that it sold 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, earning more than $400 million in that time.

This likely means MW3‘s three-day figures exceed Battlefield 6‘s by a significant margin, but that wouldn’t give me the opportunity to do some napkin math. Modern Warfare 2 has reported three-day revenue earnings of $800 million, according to GameSpot. It’s the same timeframe as Battlefield 6, but the wrong units. If we do some very rough estimating, with BF6‘s seven million copies sold at $70 each, that comes out to roughly $490 million in revenue.

Take into account those who bought the $100 Phantom Edition, and the total is likely a bit higher, but probably not high enough to match Modern Warfare 2‘s $800 million. Battlefield 6‘s sales numbers are extremely impressive, but it hasn’t beaten Call of Duty. This isn’t surprising; CoD is a well-oiled machine, having released a new chart-topping game every year for two decades.

While Call of Duty and Battlefield are clearly competitors, despite their differing niches, it’s not a fair comparison. There’s simply nothing else like CoD in the gaming industry – its annual release schedule (and thus, annual revenue) is an anomaly in the AAA space, and an incredible achievement considering how labor-intensive modern game development is. Battlefield 6 isn’t quite doing Call of Duty numbers, but it doesn’t have to; seven million copies in three days is impressive.

Systems

Released

October 10, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact

Developer(s)

Battlefield Studios

Engine

Frostbite