Grand Theft Auto 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are the two biggest games of the year, rather than GTA 6 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, according to an Activision executive.
In an interview with The Game Business, Activision (1,605 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/activision/”>Tyler Bahl, Activision’s chief marketing officer, was asked if the hype surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 (200 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/grand-theft-auto-6/”>Grand Theft Auto 6 and Nintendo (6,784 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/”>Nintendo’s Zelda remake distracted from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (709 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-modern-warfare/”>Modern Warfare 4, which releases one hour later this week (October 23).
Game Business editor Chris Dring even admitted to Bahl that he had referred to GTA 6 and Ocarina of Time as the video game equivalent of this year’s “Barbenheimer,” and that he hadn’t factored Call of Duty into that, but suggested it was more in terms of which games were most likely to drive new console sales.
“Well, no offense to Zelda, but I think, you know, (GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4) are the two biggest games of the year,” Bahl responded, “and I think in a lot of ways the more people are coming to the dashboards, the more people are dusting off their Xbox (11,842 items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/”>Xbox or PlayStation (12,745) items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/”>PlayStation and start playing again, and loading this experience is going to be more eyeballs for us, overall
“And then I think ultimately what makes Call of Duty stand the test of time, I think, is the community and the social experience. The idea of being able to play with your friends, right?”
“When we look at our research and we say, ‘Okay, what are the most exciting things in our games? Is it the combat or the gunplay?’ It’s actually “my friends are here,” right? “I can spend time with my friends.”
“And so, I think we’re still alone where we can play with your friends on all the different platforms – from Nintendo Switch 2 (1,500 items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2/”>Switch 2 this year, which is a new platform for us, all the way to PC (13,096 items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/pc/”>PC, Xbox and PlayStation still – I think that makes this a unique opportunity.
Bahl was also asked if Activision was prepared for the possibility that player numbers would decline on November 19 when Grand Theft Auto 6 releases, but he suggested that this was not guaranteed and the opposite could happen.
“You know, we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “We might actually see, you know, a slight uptick. It might go the other way, ‘Hey, I can take a little bit of this and I can also play a little bit of that’ and all that, so we’ll see.”
” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/the-legend-of-zelda-series/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-2026-remake/”>The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
He noted, however, that these numbers are based on the entire US player base on consoles and PC, and therefore Zelda’s lower number could actually be considered much more impressive given that fewer US players currently own a Switch 2 compared to a PlayStation 5 (9,872 items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps5/”>PS5, Xbox Series X|S (8,040) articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/seriesxs/”>Xbox Series X/S or PC.
“The Ocarina of Time remake currently has a 10.4% purchase intent,” he wrote. However, there is an installed base factor here. You currently have just under 50 million PS5/XBS in the US (plus PC audience), compared to less than 7 million Switch 2s.
“I certainly expect purchase intent on MW4 to be higher given this. Compared to the rate per potential player, purchase intent on Ocarina is much higher.”
Call of Duty is consistently the best-selling game in the United States each year, ranking only behind Rockstar Games (574 items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/take-two-interactive/rockstar-games/”>Rockstar titles like GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2 (245 items)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/red-dead-redemption-2/”>Red Dead Redemption 2 and, more recently, Hogwarts Legacy (294 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/hogwarts-legacy/”>Hogwarts Legacy in 2023.
Last year, however, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 finished only fifth – its lowest position in decades, behind Battlefield 2042 (263 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/battlefield-2042/”>Battlefield 6, NBA 2K26, Borderlands 4 (48 articles)” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/borderlands-series/borderlands-4/”>Borderlands 4 and Monster Hunter: Wilds.
There has been a decline in player numbers in the CoD franchise, according to Ampere, suggesting that the series’ monthly player count was consistently around 40 million in 2024, but by 2026 was around 20 million (however, data for Modern Warfare 2 and 3 is missing after July 2025, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (143 articles)) href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-black-ops-6/”>Black Ops 6 data is missing after July 2026).
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