While you should expect Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to remain one of the better selling games of the year, all signs suggest it’s seriously underperformed by series standards.
That prompted notorious franchise snoop The Ghost of Hope to make some startling revelations on social media this week.
As part of a lengthy post on X (or Twitter), he claimed the latest game’s financial performance is way “below expectations”, which were already lowered last year after Black Ops 6 supposedly “fell off a cliff”.
REPORT: Microsoft believes BO7 is a good game but the financial performance is below expectations which were lowered last year after BO6 “fell off a cliff”.
With the state of the franchise overall, the pressure is now on Call of Duty to change its model.
Microsoft wants to see… pic.twitter.com/JX12ihww1u
— Hope (@TheGhostOfHope) December 11, 2025
The sneak added that Microsoft – which acquired Activision as part of an unprecedented $69 billion buyout – wants a “smoother revenue stream and a reduced expenditure pattern”, which he alleges the company could try to achieve through “studio mergers and a complete rethink of monetisation models”.
But when presented with this information by Charlie Intel, senior Activision and Xbox reps countered that both teams “are completely aligned on investing in the future of Call of Duty and innovating for the community”.
The sources apparently added that The Ghost of Hopes claims “are not accurate”.
According to senior Activision and Xbox reps, leadership across both teams are “completely aligned on investing in the future of Call of Duty and innovating for the community.”
The Call of Duty team is moving forward with full Xbox support. Further, we were told specifically… pic.twitter.com/6DIySt7iFO
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) December 13, 2025
This prompted the insider to respond to the message with a sequence of laughing emojis, suggesting he stands by his report. Asked if he had a source for his claims, he stated confidently: “Quite a few.”
Whoever’s telling the truth here, it’s clear that Black Ops 7 is shaping up to be something of a disaster by Call of Duty standards.
Not only does the game have a 67 Metacritic rating and an even worse 1.6 user rating, but Activision recently made an unprecedented statement, acknowledging that the franchise has “not met your expectations recently”.
As part of that message, it said it would never do back-to-back sub-series releases again, and that it aims to “overdeliver” in the future.
The problem is that Call of Duty faced intense competition from Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders this year, and it will go head-to-head with the even bigger GTA 6 next year.
We would also add that the series’ marketing has seemed significantly weaker since Sony stopped footing the bill on that front, and Xbox Game Pass has also eaten into the title’s full-price sales.
So, there’s clearly some real turbulence for new owners Microsoft to navigate here, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how things shake out.
What do you think Call of Duty needs to do to stop its rot? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source x.com, via x.com, x.com]
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As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.