Microsoft Says Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Broke Game Pass Signups Record on a Launch Day

Microsoft made a big bet by releasing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass on day one, and it already seems to be paying off. The company published its FY25 Q1 earnings report yesterday and reported a 61% year-over-year growth of its Xbox content and services revenue (with 53% points attributable to Activision Blizzard). Microsoft executives also shared more specific details about the performance of the latest Call of Duty game during the company’s earnings call with investors.

“Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day. And unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year-over-year,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The exec also added that Game Pass “set a new Q1 record for total revenue and average revenue per subscriber.”

Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood later elaborated on why the launch of this new Call of Duty game is going to impact Microsoft’s financials differently. “There are two things about the launch that are different than the Call of Duty launch a year ago where revenue was mostly recognized in the quarter of purchase,” Hood explained. “First, the game is available on Game Pass so for players who play through Game Pass, the subscription revenue is recognized over time. Second, the game requires an online connection to play so even for players who purchase the standalone game, revenue recognition will also occur ratably over time.”

Microsoft is probably not going to reveal how many Game Pass subscribers it gained following the day one release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass. In February, Microsoft said that it had 34 million Game Pass subscribers, up from 25 million in January 2022. However, Xbox Game Pass Core (previously Xbox Live Gold) subscribers were included in this 9 million delta.

While Xbox hardware revenues are continuing to decline with a 29% fall year-over-year, the Xbox ecosystem is growing with more Game Pass subscribers and more players across devices. “We set new records for monthly active users in the quarter, as more players than ever play our games across devices and on the Xbox platform,” Satya Nadella said yesterday.