The Call of Duty player base declined by 50 million users over the past year

Call of Duty has lost around 50 million players over the past year.

The news was revealed via Activision Blizzard's first quarter financial results for the 2022 fiscal year, published this past week. The results show that there 100 million active monthly users on strictly Activision games (in other words, Call of Duty games), over the past three months.

This is a decline of roughly 50 million monthly active users compared to the same period last year, according to Activision Blizzard's first quarter financial results from 2021. In other words, the Call of Duty franchise at last has lost roughly one third of its monthly active users over the past 12 months.

As well as a disappointing reception to Call of Duty: Vanguard, franchise's decline comes off the back of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit, alleging rife sexual harassment at the publisher's studios. The proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft hasn't done much to heal the reputation of the publisher since the lawsuit, as the acquisition has been beset by accusations of insider trading.

Meanwhile, the lead lawyer of the prosecution overseeing the case against Activision Blizzard resigned earlier this month, alleging California governor Gavin Newsom had interfered in the case for the benefit of the publisher. Last month, a judge approved Activision Blizzard's $18 million settlement for a separate harassment suit against the publisher. Considering all the legal proceedings facing the Call of Duty publisher, perhaps it's no surprise that audiences are drifting away from the franchise en masse.

As unionization efforts persists at Activision Blizzard's owned studios, Microsoft has said it won't stand in the way of such efforts.