Call of Duty dominates 20 years of PlayStation all time sales

To celebrate the PlayStation’s 20th anniversary of launching in North America yesterday, Mat Piscatella, an industry analyst who works as Senior Director & Video Game Industry Thought Leader at Circana (formerly NPD Group), showed off the top 20 selling games on Sony’s platform.

In unsurprising news, it has Call of Duty on the list. What is surprising, though, is just how important Call of Duty is to the platform and at large.

There are plenty of reasons to stop following or reporting on Call of Duty. As pointed out by reporter Imran Khan, it’s impossible for the games press to simply ignore the franchise, despite multiple reasons to ignore it. Call of Duty games swallow 11 spots for the most dollars made, while nine games take up the most units sold list.

Really surprising is how Black Ops 6, which launched in November 2024, is already in the top five spots for dollars made. Despite it being available on Xbox Game Pass, Black Ops 6 on PlayStation sits amongst CoD: Modern Warfare 2 (2022), Red Dead Redemption 2, CoD: Modern Warfare (2019), and Grand Theft Auto V as a top earner.

Call of Duty has baggage

Call of Duty hasn’t been without its controversies, but the game is so big that these can often be forgotten or swept under the rug. More recently, some fans have called for boycotting Microsoft and, in turn, Call of Duty.

Let’s take a look at a trio of other hot water situations the series has found itself in:

• In 2010, Infinity Ward founders Vince Zampella and Jason West were removed from the company, leading to lawsuits and an exodus of staff.
• Treyarch brought on the man at the center of the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North, as an advisor.
• Modern Warfare 2019 featured a pastiche of the Highway of Death, which depicted Russia as aggressors instead of the US.

Despite all of this, and the constantly angered fans who can’t decide whether they’re going to ditch the game or silently eat their porridge, it hasn’t slowed Call of Duty down in any capacity. It’s also why the gaming press can’t simply turn away from it, because it is so important to the general zeitgeist. This is what people are playing, so let’s see what’s happening. Going by that Black Ops 6 money made position, again, Call of Duty shows no signs of slowing down.

Treyarch is currently gearing up for Black Ops 7, the 22nd mainline game in the franchise and eighth in the Black Ops subseries.