Why Black Ops 7’s Low Steam Wishlists Don’t Spell Doom

Black Ops 7’s Muted Steam Heat Check—What It Really Means

Two weeks before its November 14, 2025 launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 sits around 173rd on Steam wishlists—an “ouch” stat that’s already getting clipped and memed on social feeds. But before you hit the panic button, consider this: I’ve lived through Modern Warfare 2’s triumphant Steam return and MW3’s chaotic yet blockbuster debut, and this ranking says more about CoD’s shifting platform strategy than core fan enthusiasm.

Why Steam Wishlists Are a Weak CoD KPI

Steam wishlists are a powerful indicator for indies and mid-tier titles that rely on Valve’s front-page spotlight. CoD is not one of those. Treyarch and Activision have spent over a decade training the PC audience to use Battle.net as their launchpad, only returning to Steam in 2022 with MW2. Even then, the franchise charted because of nostalgia and Valve visibility—but a large slice of daily active players still skipped Steam entirely.

Historically, Activision has said roughly one in four CoD players lives on PC, with the rest split across PlayStation, Xbox, and mobile (where Call of Duty: Mobile carries a massive share of activity). That 75% console/mobile skew drags down Steam’s rank by default. Then add day-one Game Pass for PC: if you’re already subscribed, you don’t “wishlist”—you wait to preload. That funnel shift alone kneecaps wishlist momentum without signaling a lack of interest.

Historical Wishlist Snapshots: CoD vs. Reality

Look back at Modern Warfare 2’s debut on Steam in late 2022: it climbed into the top 20 wishlists by launch day and logged over 200,000 concurrent players in its first week. Yet even at its peak visibility, analysts noted fewer than half of MW2’s daily active PC users touched Steam. MW3 in 2023 shot to #5 on wishlists but faced server hiccups that sent some fans back to Battle.net. The lesson: Steam’s leaderboard is only one slice of CoD’s audience pie.

The Game Pass Effect on PC Pre-Orders

Black Ops 7’s inclusion in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one is great for exposure—Microsoft reports over 25 million PC Game Pass subscribers as of mid-2025—but it also cannibalizes traditional sales. Industry trackers show Black Ops 7 pre-orders are running noticeably lower than Black Ops 6 at the same lead-up stage, which aligns with past Game Pass titles that saw 10–15% fewer boxed or digital purchases. In practical terms, many PC fans opted to wait for their monthly subscription refresh rather than plunk down cash or hit “wishlist.”

Similarly, beta engagement metrics reinforce this pattern: peak concurrent players during the Black Ops 7 beta were 20–30% below the equivalent windows for Black Ops 6 and MW3, according to community-shared SteamDB graphs. That drop doesn’t mean CoD’s flame is dying—it means the funnel reoriented toward subscription access instead of pre-launch hype.

The Competition Finally Feels Competitive

For years, CoD reigned virtually unopposed on console and PC, but the tide is shifting. Battlefield’s next mainline entry is positioning itself as a return to grounded, military-first spectacle after Battlefield 2042’s stability and design misfires. If DICE nails server performance and map flow, Black Ops 7 will lose its “default shooter” status on PC in certain circles.

At the same time, extraction shooters like ARC Raiders are carving out a dedicated community. ARC’s open beta peaked at around 25,000 players concurrently—a modest number next to CoD’s millions, but enough to prove there’s appetite for session-based PvEvP experiences. Factor in an estimated 15% year-over-year growth in the extraction-genre market, and Treyarch’s content-velocity playbook (weekly playlists, seasonal drops, ever-expanding Zombies) has a much smaller margin for error.

The Monetization Shuffle: Cosmetics Weighed Toward Warzone

One of the more eye-opening changes in Black Ops 7 is the cosmetic split: fewer flashy skins in core multiplayer, with the wildest unlocks reserved for Warzone. On paper, cleaner visuals improve readability and placate competitive purists. In practice, it funnels players toward the free-to-play battle royale—where cosmetic billboards are most visible—boosting microtransaction revenue.

It’s a gamble on players’ tolerance for ecosystem fragmentation. CoD veterans expect cross-mode unlocks: buy a camo in MP, rock it in Warzone and Zombies. Now some premium MP cosmetics won’t transfer back and forth, potentially spawning buyer remorse. Treyarch needs razor-sharp communication on what carries over and what stays mode-locked if it wants to avoid a backlash.

What PC Players Should Actually Care About

Forget the wishlist rank—watch the port quality. Recent CoDs have offered solid PC toggles: FOV sliders, NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, robust CPU scaling. They’ve also flirted with shader compilation hitches, patch-day driver lockouts, and spotty Ricochet anti-cheat enforcement. If Black Ops 7 nails the fundamentals—Keeps input latency below 50 ms, supports ultrawide resolutions without HUD clipping, and integrates DLSS 3 (or FSR 2) at launch—the PC crowd will show up, Steam heat or no.

Launch Day PC Checklist

• FOV slider up to at least 120 degrees for competitive play
• DLSS or FSR integration with near-native visual quality
• Stable 60+ FPS at 1440p on mid-tier hardware
• Low input latency (<50 ms) and robust ultrawide support
• Clear anti-cheat rollout and regular ban-wave transparency

Launch KPIs to Watch

• Steam top-seller rank vs. Game Pass concurrent streams—does visibility still translate to active lobbies?
• Peak CCU across platforms—compare launch-week highs to MW3’s 1.5 million cross-platform peak.
• Server stability metrics—rubber-banding incidents, average matchmaking queue times, regional latency reports.
• Content cadence—how quickly do new maps, playlists, and Zombies modes arrive in the first 30 days?
• Cosmetic transfer clarity—monitor community feedback on cross-mode unlock satisfaction.

Putting It All Together

Black Ops 7’s low Steam wishlist rank is more platform math than collective shrug. Between Battle.net’s legacy, day-one Game Pass access, and a scrappier competitive landscape, wishlists never told the full story. The true test is flawless execution: a stable, feature-rich PC build, a transparent monetization roadmap, and enough seasonal content to keep Battlefield loyalists and ARC Raiders drop-ins engaged.

TL;DR

Steam wishlists don’t capture CoD’s console-centric and Game Pass–driven PC audience. With tougher rivals on the horizon, Black Ops 7’s fate hinges on launch stability, clear cosmetic rules, and a live-service calendar robust enough to fend off Battlefield and extraction-shooter players. Pull all that off, and the commercial win is still in Treyarch’s crosshairs.