The best-selling Xbox games right now are Call of Duty titles from 10+ years ago

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 — (Image credit: Activision)

The best-selling Xbox games right now are a bunch of Call of Duty games that were released over 10 years ago.

Earlier this week, Call of Duty fans noticed that the online servers for the series' classic games have been randomly switched back on. This quickly resulted in a spike in players for the likes of Call of Duty Black Ops 1, 2, and Modern Warfare 3 - despite all three of the games being over 10 years old now. Following this, several Xbox fans have noticed a similar trend over on the Microsoft store.

The Verge's Tom Warren was one of the first to notice that sitting at the top of the Microsoft Store's 'Top paid games' list is not one, not two, but several older Call of Duty titles. Right now, listed beside other recent releases like NBA 2K23, Hogwarts Legacy, and Elden Ring, you'll find Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty Black Ops, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty World at War, Call of Duty 4, and many more.

a bunch of Xbox 360 Call of Duty games are now the top selling games in the Xbox store after Microsoft fixed matchmaking issues https://t.co/ksEq3WtX67 pic.twitter.com/fcfP8nD2bcJuly 19, 2023

Top 5 Best-Selling Games in the Xbox StoreUS:1) COD Black Ops II2) COD Modern Warfare 23) COD Black Ops4) COD Modern Warfare 2 (2022)5) COD Modern Warfare 3UK:1) COD Modern Warfare 22) COD Black Ops II3) COD Black Ops4) The Crew 2 Gold Edition5) COD Modern Warfare 3 pic.twitter.com/tyKqhH8p0KJuly 18, 2023

It's not clear why these classic Call of Duty games were revived in the first place. One theory is that, now that Microsoft is a step closer to finalizing its Activision Blizzard deal, Xbox could be planning to integrate Call of Duty into more of its services, like Xbox Game Pass. We'll have to wait and see for confirmation on this one.

Before you start digging out your Xbox 360 console, now is a great time to remind you that you can actually play these games on your Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S thanks to backward compatibility. All you need to do is purchase the games through the Microsoft Store or, if you've still got them, put the disc in. Have fun pretending it's 2010 again!

Wondering which one to get started with? Take a look at our best Call of Duty games list.

PRODUCTS

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.