Call of Duty Will Stop Doing Back-to-Back Releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops Games

It’s been almost a month since Activision released Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which came right after the Black Ops 6 episode from 2024. This was the second time that Activision had back-to-back releases of the same sub-franchise following the release of Modern Warfare II and III in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Well, this formula doesn’t seem to work very well, as Activision just announced that it won’t do that again. “We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games. The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year,” the Call of Duty team announced yesterday.

Many signs are showing that Black Ops 7 isn’t doing as well as expected. First of all, reviews for the game dropped below the 70 bar on Metacritic, while its predecessor scored above 80. Worse, as of this writing, user scores on the review aggregator are below 2/10 on all platforms.

This year, the Call of Duty team also didn’t have a message to announce a record number of players for what it said was “the biggest Black Ops game ever made.” The only message we got was posted on November 17, three days after the game’s global release, and it only mentioned “great response to the quality and depth of gameplay in Black Ops 7.

Thank you to our community and developers. This is just the start #BlackOps7 ? pic.twitter.com/dWDt6Jvpx0

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) November 17, 2025

The message the Call of Duty team posted yesterday seems to contradict that, however. It starts with an acknowledgement that some longtime fans don’t like the direction the franchise has taken in recent years.

“Call of Duty has enjoyed long-standing success because of all of you, a passionate community that demands excellence and deserves nothing less,” the team said yesterday. “We also know that for some of you, the Franchise has not met your expectations fully. To be very clear, we know what you expect and rest assured we will deliver, and overdeliver, on those expectations as we move forward.”

While Activision won’t stop releasing new Call of Duty games every year, the Call of Duty team is currently committed to making Black Ops 7 a great experience for all players. “ We won’t rest until Black Ops 7 earns its place as one of the best Black Ops games we’ve ever made,” the team said.

As for its plans for the future of the franchise, the team hinted at “meaningful, not incremental” innovations. “We have been building the next era of Call of Duty, and it will deliver precisely on what you want along with some surprises that push the Franchise and the genre forward,” the team said in the conclusion to its update.

After Black Ops 7 failed to generate as much momentum as EA’s Battlefield 6 or the surprise hit Arc Raiders this fall, it’s clear that Activision needs to shake up its annual Call of Duty formula. The blockbuster franchise is still a massive cash cow for Activision (and its new owner, Microsoft), even though the day-one release of Black Ops 6 on Game Pass last year reportedly cost the company $300 million in lost sales.

What do you think Microsoft and Activision need to do to ensure the future of the Call of Duty franchise? Sound off in the comments below.