Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's launch took up 19% Comcast's total weekly internet traffic

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said that Call of Duty: Black Op 6's launch was the biggest in the franchise's history, setting day one and opening weekend sales records on PlayStation. According to Steam data, its PC launch (the game is also available on Battle.net) was at least 60% bigger than last year's Modern Warfare III. As the first Call of Duty to launch day one into Xbox Game Pass, it did so while setting a record for the number of new Game Pass subscribers in a single day.

2

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Thursday Night Football accounted for 26 percent of total network traffic in the United States, image credit: Comcast.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a massive success, almost single-handedly justifying Microsoft's unprecedented acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And just in case you needed some more proof that Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty is a juggernaut, one of the biggest internet service providers in the United States, Comcast, has announced that Call of Duty's launch led to the week of October 25 becoming the "biggest week in Internet history."

According to Comcast, the pre-launch downloads accounted for 19% of the ISP's total network traffic, which includes everyone on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox downloading upwards of 100GB to jump into the action on day one.

When you add Thursday Night Football streaming, watching sports and downloading video games are now the "biggest Internet traffic events."

"This same gaming and live sports combo also happened in 2022, and at the time, it was one of the biggest days we'd ever seen on our network. Last week's occurrence was 14 percent higher," said Elad Nafshi, Chief Network Officer, Comcast.

The good news is that Comcast's network was able to handle all of the traffic. The announcement also confirmed that the company has spent over $20 billion on network development and infrastructure since 2019. Comcast will continue to expand its presence, deploy new low-latency tech, and even deploy AI-powered technology for a more reliable network during "periods of high demand and extreme weather."

• Read more: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass may not have significantly cannibalized sales after all
• Read more: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 season 1 start date confirmed by Activision
• Read more: AMD claims Radeon has up to 38% more performance than NVIDIA in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Read more: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has a $20 premium 'Enhanced Headphone Mode' tier just for audio