The short version
- Modern Warfare 4 launched on October 23 (₹4,999 on Steam in India, $69.99 in the US), but Activision hasn't shared any sales figures.
- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said instead that Call of Duty has passed $40 billion in lifetime revenue, a number that says nothing about MW4 itself.
- MW4's Steam peak of about 215,000 players is roughly 30% below Black Ops 6's launch, though MW4 isn't on Game Pass this time.
- Microsoft reports results after US markets close on October 28, early on October 29 in India. That's the next place MW4's numbers could show up.
What Activision has said
Very little about sales. Activision hasn't put out a figure for copies sold, revenue or players. The closest thing is Sharma's post, which called MW4 "one of the most celebrated" Call of Duty games and said the series has now earned more than $40 billion over its life. That's up from about $30 billion reported in 2022.
It's a big number, but it covers every Call of Duty game, Warzone and all the in-game spending since 2003. It tells us nothing about how many people bought MW4 in its first week.
The silence stands out because the reviews are good. Kotaku notes MW4 has the series' best Metacritic score in about 15 years, and our roundup of the campaign reviews found critics mostly positive.
Image: Activision
What the player counts show
Without official numbers, people look at what's public. Here's what Windows Central found:
- Steam: MW4 peaked at about 215,000 players at once, per SteamDB. Black Ops 6 hit 306,460 on its 2024 launch weekend, so MW4 is roughly 30% lower.
- Xbox: TrueAchievements data puts MW4 about 32% below Black Ops 7 on Xbox, and behind Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day and Forza Horizon 6. All three of those were on Game Pass at launch.
- Steam sales chart: MW4 was still the best-selling game on Steam at release.
There are big caveats. Steam's count covers the whole Call of Duty HQ app, which also includes Warzone and older games. And player counts aren't sales. The biggest factor is Game Pass: Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 both launched on it, so anyone subscribed could play without buying. MW4 hasn't, so every player had to pay full price. Reports expect it on Game Pass about a year after launch.
How Activision used to talk about launches
For most of the 2010s, Call of Duty launch numbers were a yearly event. Activision announced them within days, often comparing them with Hollywood box office records.
Image: Zerocade
A few highlights:
- Modern Warfare 2 (2009): $310 million on day one in the US and UK, and $550 million in five days.
- Black Ops II (2012): $500 million in 24 hours, and $1 billion in 15 days.
- Modern Warfare (2019): $600 million in three days. Activision said that was more than double the opening of the film Joker.
- Modern Warfare II (2022): $800 million in three days, and $1 billion in 10 days, the fastest in the series.
Image: Activision
Then the messaging changed. After Microsoft bought Activision in 2023, Black Ops 6 (2024) was promoted with player and Game Pass records rather than a sales figure. Black Ops 7 (2025) got no launch figures at all. Reports later said its European launch-week sales were 63% below Battlefield 6, according to GSD data.
Why companies go quiet
There are fair reasons beyond a weak launch. With Call of Duty now inside Microsoft, revenue goes into Microsoft's gaming results rather than Activision's own announcements. Game Pass also muddies the picture: a subscriber playing isn't a sale, so "copies sold" stopped being the full story in 2024.
Still, companies tend to share numbers they're proud of. On paper, the quiet after two launches in a row, plus softer player counts, suggests MW4's start was solid rather than record-breaking. That's our reading, not a report, and the earnings call could change it.
What to watch next
Microsoft reports results for July to September after US markets close on October 28, which is early on October 29 in India. MW4 launched after that quarter ended, so its sales won't be in the numbers. Watch for any comment on it on the call, and for Microsoft's outlook for gaming over the holidays. After that, US sales charts from Circana and European data from GSD will show where MW4 ranked in October.
