Black Ops 7 Could End Up Being the Poster Child for the 'CoD Cycle'

Regardless of whether a Call of Duty fan knows the exact term for it or not, they’ll undoubtedly be familiar with the CoD cycle. And no, this isn’t in reference to developers Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games trading off development duties, but is instead in reference to how fickle the Call of Duty community can be. The CoD cycle goes as follows, and without fail, it tends to happen each and every year:

A new game is revealed, and fans are excited.
Said game launches, and fans are celebrating it in its earliest days.
After a few weeks, complaints become rampant, and the game goes from being good to “sucking.”
The current game is continuously bashed in the lead-up to the next CoD.
As the next CoD releases, and opinion on it becomes negative, the previous year’s game is suddenly compared to the newer title and re-evaluated.
The year-old CoD game is said to have been judged too harshly, and becomes looked back at more fondly as time goes on.
The cycle repeats itself, with games that were once hated becoming loved as time passes.

Realistically, though the Call of Duty franchise has its issues — yearly releases are growing tiresome, Warzone integration is making games feel samey, and so on — a majority of the games are objectively well-made from a mechanical standpoint. Sure, fans will have their preferences due to map design, balancing, and whatnot, but Call of Duty always delivers top-tier FPS gunplay. So, with that consistent gameplay quality, it’s only natural that after the initial backlash dies down, a majority of the franchise’s releases will eventually be recognized as “good” or even “great.” The CoD cycle has impacted every entry since Black Ops 2, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere based on the reception to Black Ops 7. However, BO7 may be the greatest example yet of the cycle in action, as it seems incredibly likely that the game will one day be looked at as one of the series’ most underappreciated entries ever.

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Black Ops 7 Shines Where It Matters Most

To be clear, Black Ops 7 isn’t without real problems. Its campaign is a letdown, both in terms of its level design and storytelling, as it’s a far cry from the quality of David Mason’s previous adventure. However, the other pillars of the game — the ones that most gamers buy a CoD title for — completely deliver. Black Ops 7 multiplayer has been well received by a vast majority of players, as reduced skill-based matchmaking, better map design, and persistent lobbies are all things the community demanded for years. Weapon leveling and prestiging means there’s more to grind for than ever, and the amount of seasonal content has been downright staggering, with players showered in free maps in a way that is only comparable to MW3 (2023).

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And while BO7 may seem similar to MW3 (2023) in the sense that it’s the second entry from the same subseries in a row, with a well-supported multiplayer but a messy campaign, there’s a key difference: Zombies. While MWZ had a promising start, it quickly fell off due to a lack of meaningful content additions. BO7 Zombies, on the other hand, is thriving. Cursed mode has been improved through the addition of public matches, the dialogue and storytelling is the best it’s been in years, and the newly released Totenreich map is arguably the first S-tier Zombies map since Ancient Evil. If Black Ops 7 Zombies’ final two maps are on par with Totenreich, then it could be one of the best three CoD Zombies games of all time, and that’s something to celebrate.

Yet while Black Ops 7 offers very strong multiplayer and Zombies modes, everyone is aware that it’s suffered from disappointing sales, a rarity for the CoD franchise. Contributors range from Xbox Game Pass to widespread memes about the game’s campaign to a general burnout regarding the Black Ops brand, but whatever the precise cause, the fact is that BO7 just wasn’t as big of a hit as its predecessor. That’s an absolute shame, because it feels like gamers are missing out on some of the most well-rounded multiplayer and Zombies modes of the last decade. So, naturally, when CoD fans return to BO7 to give it a fairer shake later, they’re likely going to be stunned by how special maps like Totenreich are.

The situation regarding Carry Forward likely didn’t help either, as its removal is still hotly debated to this day, with many players wishing it stuck around since some over-the-top skins (like Dave Chappelle) ended up being released anyway.

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Black Ops 7 being the game that delivers on the community’s biggest wishes, like low SBMM and the classic Zombies cast returning, should have seen it being adored by fans. Instead, it’s fallen victim to the same early vitriol every new CoD release does, and that backlash may have finally impacted sales. Now, it’s hard not to worry that Activision will take the wrong lesson from BO7’s performance, walking back everything it did well with CoD 2026. The CoD cycle has grown tiring, as the community regularly looks hypocritical and comes off like it doesn’t know what it wants.

Players returning to games like Infinite Warfare to properly celebrate them when the door has long since closed on potential follow-ups is incredibly frustrating. Instead, they should be appreciating these games when it’s their time in the spotlight, showing their love for them before developers and the series’ publisher decide to change course. It’s not too late for BO7 to get the love it deserves with a few Seasons left, but sadly, it feels like it’s destined to be yet another example of CoD players pulling a Thanos and realizing they “judged it too harshly,” and only when they’re busy hating on the next entry.