Is Call of Duty losing its grip on gamers?

It's Friday, January 19, 2024.

A Call of Duty game sells. That’s what it does. And it usually tops the sales charts, almost every year since 2009. However, last year was a bit different: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III landed in second place.

To convey the gravitational pull of CoD, when Microsoft was fighting to buy Activision Blizzard – publisher of the game series — the Xbox maker had to make concessions and ensure the games would come to PlayStation and other platforms to make the purchase happen.

This time around, however, Hogwarts Legacy — a game not without its own controversies — beat it to the top spot. It did benefit from being the only Harry Potter game in a decade. In that time, there have been 11 Call of Duty releases. Headlines aside, the series will be fine. Another thing worth noting: 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II still took the number seven spot.

— Mat Smith

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