So, I was just reading an article about the ever famous decline of Call of Duty or how fatigue has set in for the franchise. The article stated how apparent it was that Activision is in deep trouble due to lower sales for CoD and how Destiny wasn't able to fill the void. My question to this article is, why would Activision worry about filling the void when CoD will eventually fill it back up anyways? You see, I don't think CoD is in a decline so much as a stalled casual fanbase, and for good reason.
People, practically everyone, like to say that CoD is on decline due to lower overall sales than previous entries of the franchise. People like to say Advanced Warfare sold much less than Ghosts and Ghosts sold less than BO2 and BO2 sold less than MW3. To most people this means decline which in all fairness is technically a decline; by definition CoD is declining. But, how do the sales of CoD look when compared to the sales of PS3 and 360's yearly sales? Well, every year that PS3 and 360 grow YOY, so does CoD and so far every year that PS3's and 360's sales have fallen YOY so has CoD.
Ever since the 7 gen HD twins' sales started to pitter out CoD's sales have also began to falter. Not that CoD's sales aren't healthy, because they are very healthy, its just that they aren't as strong as they used to be when people were buying more consoles on a yearly basis.
What I'm trying to say is, CoD is technically on a decline but not a permanent decline. CoD grows where the crowd goes and currently the crowd is transitioning to 8th gen. As long as the 8th gen grows, CoD grows. One has to remember just how long the 7th generation was and then think about the effects its going to have on annual software sales, especially on casual/annual titles like CoD (although GTA V broke records, but not an annual title).
8th gen (excluding Nintendo, since Cod wasn't big here) has sold twice as fast as 7th gen so far and again, CoD's sales are following suit. Its quite apparent that 7th gen console owners are buying alot LESS software compared to 8th gen, and I mean MUCH less. 7th gen is where the decline comes in because it sure as sh*t ain't from 8th gen considering Advanced Warfare for PS4 has vastly outsold Ghosts for PS4cummulatively speaking. AW for PS4 has been out for a little over a month and it has already outsold Ghosts for PS4 by more than double the amount copies and Ghosts has been out for over a year. As 8th gen grows, CoD will grow, and it will grow fast.
tl;dr --- CoD has doubled its 8th gen sales YOY but is down immensely in 7th gen YOY. Does this mean CoD's days of 30 million copies sold are done, will they eventually replenish, or has it just fatigued?
