Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is nearing 400,000 copies sold on Steam already, and that’s well ahead of where last year’s Black Ops 7 stood at launch on Valve’s platform. This is according to Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics, who added that pre-sales on Steam alone work out to around $21 million in revenue.
Elliott said Black Ops 7 managed to hit around 200,000 copies pre-sold on Steam by launch. Modern Warfare 4 has doubled that, and with two months still to go before release.
MW4’s beta put up big numbers on Steam during its early-access period, reaching a peak of more than 115,000 concurrent users. Black Ops 7, meanwhile, peaked at about 100,000 concurrent users on Steam, even after it went live for everyone outside of a beta weekend, according to ChalieIntel.
MW4 performing better than Black Ops 7 by some metrics already is not a total surprise, as last year’s game was a commercial disappointment. In fact, its sales ranking in the US was the lowest for the series since 2008.
The next MW4 beta is coming up this weekend, running August 28-September 1. This will be an open beta, so anyone on any platform can play without needing to preorder. Additionally, this beta will extend to Nintendo Switch 2.
MW4 is expected to have stronger outright sales overall in part on PC because it is not included with PC Game Pass like Black Ops 7 was.
Impact on console sales
Elliott also observed that MW4 could help improve sales of PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. MW4 is the first entry in the series since 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts to skip PS4 and Xbox One, so the launch of MW4, combined with the current-gen-only GTA 6, will “for sure nudge the last-gen holdouts,” Elliott said.
The newest consoles are more expensive than ever today, thanks to a variety of factors, including tariffs, AI, and the capitalistic demands to always make more money. As such, anyone buying a new console to play MW4 or GTA 6 who hasn’t kept up with the news is in for a shock at the register or online checkout. For its part, Microsoft is encouraging people to buy a used console or use a Buy Now, Pay Later service to help fund the cost of an expensive new console.
MW4 launches on October 23, while GTA 6 arrives at long last on November 19.