'Chicken Dinner': Is 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 4' Winning The Battle Royale Competition?

In the world of gaming, Activision Blizzard, Inc. ATVI’s "Call of Duty" franchise has attracted over 100 million players since 2017.

Eighteen games have been released in the series since its inaugural shooter release in 2003; "Call of Duty" had accumulated $15 billion in sales as of 2016, even before two of the most popular games in the franchise. 

What Happened

In order to gain leverage on the increasing prominence of the online survival gaming landscape, the latest "Call of Duty" rendition features battle royale gameplay, similar to "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds," or "PUBG."

"Black Ops 4" made more than $500 million during its three-day weekend launch, according to Forbes. While the game struggled on the sales of physical discs, Sony Corp. SNE’s PlayStation Store said it's the fastest-selling game in company history.

The game additionally set a record on Microsoft Corp. MSFT’s Xbox One as Activision’s biggest Xbox digital launch to date.

Why It’s Important

Following the much-anticipated Oct. 12 launch, it appears that "Call of Duty" is swaying users away from "PUBG." The latter game saw a 6.5-percent drop in player count the weekend of the "Black Ops 4" release, according to VentureBeat data. 

From there, "PUBG" demonstrated a midweek drop of 10.4 percent to a peak player count of 842,000, compared to the usual 940,000. The numbers could be attributed to the excitement over a new game, but may be damaging to "Call of Duty" competitors if they persist. 

What’s Next

Titles like "Red Dead Redemption 2," "Fallout 76" and "Battlefield 5" are on the docket for the remainder of 2018, adding to the video game competition. 

Activision Blizzard shares were down 1.81 percent at $70.51 at the time of publication Friday. 

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"Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" screenshot courtesy of Activision Blizzard.