In a surprising twist, Call of Duty has become more popular on Xbox than any other system for the first time in ten years, thanks to Black Ops 6 being on Game Pass.
Phil Spencer from Microsoft Gaming explained in an interview with Game File that the goal is to make games available everywhere, not just on specific devices. “Most of the gaming platforms are, ‘This device runs this [game],’ and trying to think about a platform that looks more horizontally and connects creators and players in that way, that’s what we’re trying to do, and that’s the feedback we’re getting.”
Xbox hadn’t seen such dominance since 2014 with Advanced Warfare, as reported by
. The big question is: why now? Phil Spencer believes it’s all thanks to Game Pass.
The marketing teams at Microsoft and Activision worked hard together, and they did a great job promoting that Black Ops 6 would be on Game Pass. “I’m really proud of Black Ops 6,” Spencer shared. “I really saw the [Microsoft and Activision] teams gel together as they both built [the Game Pass marketing] promotion,” he said.
After the game launched, Microsoft kept pushing with new ideas. They even added a spooky Easter egg to the Nuketown map, which is like a pretend nuclear test site with creepy mannequins living in fake houses.
Fans love when companies work together to make cool things happen.
Before Microsoft bought Activision in 2022, Xbox was still a favorite for Call of Duty because Microsoft paid for special rights to some extra content and ads.
