Battlefield 6 has more hype behind it than the series has seen in years, and its beta's Steam numbers even stomped Call of Duty, but one analyst reckons the game still won't easily outsell Black Ops 6. And it's all because Call of Duty, even at its lowest point, is still a stronger brand than Battlefield at its top form - for now, at least.
That comes courtesy of Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliot, who reports Battlefield 6 is doing more-than-healthy numbers on Steam with over 2.7 million wishlists and around $35 million worth of pre-orders ahead of its October 10 release date.
It's a welcome change of pace for the series after Battlefield 5 and 2042 somewhat muddied the water, and all the success has mainly been fuelled by Battlefield 6's impressive open beta period, which even prompted former Blizzard Entertainment boss Mike Ybarra to predict "Battlefield will boot stomp CoD this year."
But Alinea Analytics' report suggests those predictions aren't airtight. "Tens of millions of players, many of them casual gamers, buy the newest CoD every year without hesitation," the report states. "This 'autopilot purchasing' habit is decades deep, and breaking it requires more than one awesome Battlefield release."
"CoD's muscle memory in the market is so strong that players will buy it even if they complain about it," the report continues. Part of Call of Duty's advantage over other shooters is Warzone, the report explains, because it basically advertises the newest mainline game to millions of people for months. Battlefield lacks such a free-to-play, cross-promotion opportunity.
Historically, there's also never really been an instance where Battlefield has won out over Call of Duty - the former's "sales ceiling" peaked with Battlefield 1, which still reportedly sold millions less than that year's middling CoD: Infinite Warfare, for example. We'll see who ends up on top later this year.
Battlefield 6 beta beat Counter-Strike 2, Peak, Marvel Rivals, and Helldivers 2 to be the biggest game on Steam in North America, but it couldn't top Call of Duty on console
