On July 9th 2026 Activision took the gaming market by surprise, releasing ports of Call of Duty Black Ops and Black Ops 2 for PS4 & PS5. Within the first month of their release, these legacy games brought in ~$435 million in revenue and sold (estimated) 11.2 million copies between the two. This is a huge win for gamers that want to relive the good ol’ multiplayer games without having to own the OG consoles.
Activision ports generate $435 million and top US sales charts
According to Circana data, Black Ops 2 was the top-selling game in the US for the month of July 2026. Activision execs stated that it was an unexpected success that surpassed their expectations. They plan to use this as an advantage to launch Modern Warfare 4 leveraging nostalgic players.
They include original campaign and multiplayer experience from the 2010 and 2012 games. As confirmed by Activision, these games were optimized for the new PS consoles. This means users can enjoy legacy games, more stable, with better connectivity experience, compared to OG Xbox 360 & PS3.
The launch was met with negative feedback from former Treyarch level designer Gavin Goslin. He claims the OG creators don’t get royalties on these ports. Watching legacy games make millions is tough. In response, Activision CMO Tyler Bahl stated that their main mission is to provide nostalgic experiences to friends and communities.
This is part of the greater trend of monetizing older IP with remasters. As confirmed by Activision these ports are purchasable on PS digital stores. Activision will look to use the success of these ports as a learning for future marketing efforts for their big releases.
Source: VideoGameChronicles
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