‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ Lands 2 Spots in the Top 10 PC Game Sales | Chart

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” claimed two separate spots in the top 10 lineup of this week’s Steam chart, which tracks PC sales revenue. The title accomplished this feat while also having spent 48 consecutive weeks on the chart.

“Modern Warfare 2,” Activision’s $70 release from October 2022, has the fourth spot in the top 10 list, making it the second-most revenue-rich paid game on Steam this week. It’s been on Steam’s chart for a while thanks to its continuous staying power, but a sudden climb to spot No. 4 either signifies a slow week, relatively speaking, for Steam revenue in general or a serious post-launch bump thanks to a recent release of a battle pass — an add-on purchase that unlocks game bonuses such as cosmetics and in-game currencies.

The “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – BlackCell 02 (Season 04)” battle pass is how “Modern Warfare 2” managed to grab two of the top 10 revenue slots, as the $30 add-on for the main game claimed slot No. 9 all by itself. The data present doesn’t allow for combining revenue figures to figure out Activision’s total takeaway from the lone title, but it’s safe to imagine these two items are each reaping blockbuster figures.

“Modern Warfare 2” is still averaging around 80,000 consecutive Steam players and it’s been months since the game’s launch. Furthermore, the game managed $1 billion in sell-through within its first 10 days on the market, so it stands to reason with that many players having bought the game, a sizable community would persist. Still, it’s rare that add-on content climbs so high in the PC revenue charts, especially when both the game and its add-on have a “mixed” player reception.

This kind of nearly unrivaled brand power is part of why Microsoft wants Activision’s IP stable, and why Activision was in a financial position to consider a bid for Time Warner a few years back.

The other surprise of this week’s revenue rankings is “BattleBit Remastered,” an indie endeavor aiming to recapture the first-person military-shooter fun of old “Battlefield” games while maintaining a respectful distance from the actual “Battlefield” franchise so as not to incur the wrath of publisher EA and its lawyers. The $15 early-access game — a title that’s still in development but is letting players buy and try it early — was the No. 1 paid game on Steam this week, coming in No. 2 overall behind “Counterstrike: Global Offensive,” a free title with an in-game economy that may very well keep it at the top of Steam’s revenue chart for eternity, or at least until “Grand Theft Auto 6” emerges.

The indie title has already racked up over 12,000 user reviews and maintains a “very positive” aggregate rating. Multiplayer-focused indie games, especially competitive shooters, have a trickier path to navigate than, say, “Modern Warfare 2,” since the latter has a major corporation’s financial backing to keep big updates coming so that players stick around. The test for “BattleBit Remastered” will be if it can retain an audience as it goes through its early-access period.

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The other items of the week weren’t massive upsets to expectations. Valve’s Steam Deck hardware secured the No. 3 revenue spot (its ongoing popularity and $400 price tag are key contributing factors there), free-to-play action-roleplaying game “Lost Ark” earned slot No. 5, and “Starfield” continued to climb the top 10 solely through preorders.

“Starfield” releases in September, but the hype surrounding it is massive enough that it’s likely to remain one of the top 10 most lucrative PC titles for most, if not all, weeks between now and its launch. It rocketed onto the scene last week when preorders opened up.

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Costing $70, “Starfield” is Bethesda’s next massive game, one angling to exceed or at least match the scope and depth of what players have come to expect from its other major AAA franchises “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout.”

Below “Starfield” in revenue was “Street Fighter 6,” the latest installment in Capcom’s storied fighting game franchise. Though the game fell to seventh place after dominating the chart for a brief while, it still stayed in the top 10, reasserting that the game is off to a better start than “Street Fighter 5” was during its launch window. The sixth installment’s robust character creator, wealth of content and resulting positive word of mouth are likely key contributors to its continued success.

Rounding off the top 10 list, Nos. 8 and 10 both went to “Spider-Man” games (with the “Call of Duty” DLC sandwiched between them at No. 9). Eighth place was claimed by “Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered” and tenth went to “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.” Both games are PC ports of previously PlayStation-exclusive titles.

The pair of Spidey games likely received a jolt of sales activity due to discounting, a 33% price cut, as well as the cinema buzz around “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and, to a much lesser degree, the recent “Kraven” movie news. The upcoming PlayStation 5 title “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” likely has PC players hankering for a slice of action ahead of the sequel’s debut.

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