The Call of Duty franchise is worth $800 million to PlayStation, and that’s just counting the United States. The figure was accidentally revealed in a poorly redacted document submitted as evidence in the ongoing Federal Trade Commission vs. Microsoft hearing. It also reveals player numbers and overall playing time.
Call of Duty could be worth $1.5 billion on PlayStation worldwide
The document submitted to the FTC is written by PlayStation head Jim Ryan and includes various details about the Call of Duty franchise and its value to the company. Whatever was used to redact the sensitive information (The Verge claims it was a Sharpie) didn’t work properly, and several bits of information can still be made out. In 2021, the Call of Duty franchise made $800 million on PlayStation in the U.S. alone. While the next figure is less clear, the document also suggests the franchise is worth $1.5 billion on PlayStation worldwide.
Between 2019 and 2021, it seems like Call of Duty players raised $15.9 billion (or $13.9 billion) on PlayStation worldwide. This spending includes hardware, accessories, subscriptions, games, and other PlayStation services. Again, the following figures are a bit difficult to make out, but it seems like this large sum of money was generated by more than 89 million PlayStation players worldwide.
Another section of the document was analyzed by The Verge and reveals that “over [14?] million users (by device)” spent more than 30% of their gaming time playing Call of Duty in 2021. There was also more than 6 million players who spent more than 70% of their time playing Call of Duty, an average of 296 hours per person. Finally, 1 million players use their PlayStation device to play Call of Duty for 100% of their gaming time.
When added to the fact that the best-selling PS5 and PS4 games for the last 10 years were Call of Duty titles, it’s easy to see why Sony would be worried about losing the franchise on its consoles if the Microsoft-Activision deal were to go ahead. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has vowed to “do whatever it takes” to keep the franchise on PlayStation, though.
