Call of Duty

In its annual report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, Activision listed Call of Duty, then in development, with True Crime: Streets of L.A. as new original properties it hoped to establish as franchises.⁠[1]

Activision signed a long-term exclusive publishing agreement with Spark Unlimited, a studio formed by 28 former Medal of Honor developers; its first title was to be released under the Call of Duty brand in 2004.⁠[2]

Call of Duty, a World War II first-person action game developed by Infinity Ward, was released for PC on October 29, 2003; it was the best-selling PC game in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2003 and ranked fifth for the year.⁠[3]

After the PC games Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive, the third title, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, came to several consoles between October and December 2004 and ranked among NPD’s top five best-selling games for December 2004.⁠[4]

Call of Duty 2 was released for PC and Xbox 360 between October and December 2005, one of four titles launched with the Xbox 360, and became the console’s top-selling game; Call of Duty 2: Big Red One was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.⁠[5]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the most popular game in units worldwide for calendar 2007 and the best-selling PC game in units and dollars in the U.S. and Europe in the fourth quarter of 2007.⁠[6]

On July 9, 2008, Activision combined with Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard, about 55% owned by Vivendi. Call of Duty: World at War was released that year, and the series’ life-to-date sales exceeded $1 billion.⁠[7]

Released in November 2009, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 became the first video game to surpass $550 million in retail sales in its first five days; by February 2010 its worldwide retail sales exceeded $1 billion.⁠[8]

Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, was released in the fourth quarter of 2010 and achieved more than $1 billion in retail sales. The company said the series had set the largest entertainment launch ever in two consecutive years.⁠[9]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released in November 2011 and generated $1 billion in sales in 16 days; the Call of Duty Elite subscription service launched with it had more than seven million registered users by January 2012, over 1.5 million of whom bought premium annual memberships.⁠[10]

Call of Duty: Black Ops II was released in November 2012 and crossed $1 billion in worldwide retail sales in 15 days. The company called the launch of Elite its “most significant mistake” and later made all Elite features free.⁠[11]

Call of Duty: Ghosts was released in November 2013 and was the best-selling title in units and dollars in North America and Europe that quarter, but sold more slowly than its predecessor, which the company partly attributed to the console transition.⁠[12]

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was released in November 2014 and was the top-selling console game globally that year, though the company acknowledged it did not perform as well as hoped. Cumulative franchise revenue had passed $11 billion.⁠[13]

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, released in the fourth quarter of 2016 with Modern Warfare Remastered, earned less than its predecessor; the company said it “may have got a little lost in space,” but the series remained the number one console franchise globally that year.⁠[14]

The series marked its 15th anniversary in 2018. The company said Call of Duty had been the number one console franchise globally for nine of the previous ten years and planned to develop esports starting with it.⁠[15]

Call of Duty: Mobile launched in October 2019; it was later downloaded more than 450 million times and was the highest-grossing new game in U.S. app stores in its first 12 months.⁠[16]

Call of Duty: Warzone launched in March 2020 and drew more than 100 million players; the franchise’s net bookings roughly doubled year over year in 2020.⁠[16]

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the franchise’s console and PC net bookings fell year over year, partly due to lower premium sales of Call of Duty: VanguardVanguardVanguard (The Vanguard Group) is an asset management company headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, founded by John C. Bogle in 1974. It operates under a structure in which the company is owned by its funds, which are in turn owned by their investors; known for low-cost index funds, it launched the first index mutual fund for individual investors in 1976 and pushed the fund industry to lower its fees.Open the full entry; that year, worldwide consumer spending on Call of Duty: Mobile exceeded $1 billion.⁠[17]

On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, naming Call of Duty among its franchises.⁠[18]

On December 8, 2022, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an administrative complaint against Activision Blizzard and Microsoft. That year Call of Duty, Warcraft and Candy Crush together accounted for 79% of Activision Blizzard’s net revenues.⁠[19]

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report on April 26, 2023, prohibiting the original deal to protect innovation and choice in cloud gaming; on August 22 the parties notified a restructured deal excluding Activision’s non-EEA cloud streaming rights.⁠[20]

On October 13, 2023, the CMA consented to Microsoft acquiring Activision without part of its cloud streaming rights: Activision’s cloud streaming rights outside the EEA, covering current and future PC and console games released over the next 15 years, passed to Ubisoft before completion.⁠[21]

The same day, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer officially welcomed Activision Blizzard to Xbox and said work would start on bringing Activision, Blizzard and King franchises to Game Pass and other platforms.⁠[22]

Microsoft confirmed in its fiscal 2024 annual report that it completed the acquisition in October 2023.⁠[23]

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, was released on October 25, 2024 as a spy action thriller set in the early 1990s, when the Gulf War dominated headlines.⁠[24]

The FTC’s administrative case was withdrawn from adjudication in July 2023 and returned on September 26, 2023; on May 22, 2025 the Commission issued an order dismissing the complaint and closed the case.⁠[25]

Announced on June 8, 2025, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, set in 2035, and released on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC, with day-one access on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.⁠[26]

It went live worldwide on November 14, 2025.⁠[27]

Marking its 16th anniversary, the Call of Duty Endowment announced it had helped 165,000 veterans in the U.S. and U.K. into high-quality jobs, with a goal of 200,000 by 2030; Activision said 100% of its net proceeds from an upcoming in-game pack would go to the Endowment.⁠[28]

Unveiled on May 28, 2026, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 was developed under Infinity Ward’s lead; its campaign opens with war on the Korean Peninsula after a full-scale North Korean invasion, and it was released for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, with no PS4 or Xbox One versions.⁠[29]

It launched as a standalone purchase and was not included in Game Pass at launch, with inclusion not planned until Holiday 2027.⁠[30]

The game went live worldwide on October 23, 2026.⁠[31]

The official Call of Duty website describes it as the best-selling video game franchise and offers the game through Xbox, PlayStation, Battle.net, Steam and Switch 2.⁠[32]

Call of Duty: Official website: https://www.callofduty.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[32]

X: Official account: https://x.com/CallofDuty (opens in a new window)⁠[32]

Activision: Official website: https://www.activision.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[33]

Infinity Ward: Official website: https://www.infinityward.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[34]