Call of Duty Black Ops Ports Crack PS5 Top 10 Despite $40 Price Tags
Circana data shows both Black Ops and Black Ops 2 debuted in the US weekly player engagement chart for the week ending July 11, even as critics questioned the value of the unimproved ports.
Players Voted With Their Wallets
Critics called them overpriced. Reviewers flagged old bugs that were never fixed. Push Square went so far as to subtitle its Black Ops review “One Big Rip-Off.” None of it mattered much.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella revealed this week that both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 cracked the organization’s US Player Engagement Tracker for the week ending July 11, 2026. The tracker measures total weekly active users on Sony’s consoles, not concurrent players, and tends to be dominated by the usual long-running juggernauts. This time, Black Ops 2 debuted at sixth and the original Black Ops at ninth, according to Piscatella’s post on Bluesky. They were the only two new entrants in the top ten; the rest of the list was filled out by established names like GTA 5, Minecraft, and Marvel Rivals.
The Circana data lines up with raw player numbers pulled from Sony’s still-in-beta player tracker widget. A podcast featuring YouTuber Mystic cited those figures, reporting that Black Ops 2 logged 5.25 million US players while the original Black Ops reached 1.9 million. Push Square noted there is some skepticism around how precise the widget’s data is, but taken alongside the Circana results and the PS Store best-sellers list, a clear picture emerges: these ports sold very well.
The Value Question Nobody Asked at Checkout
That success is a little surprising given the terms Activision offered. Both games launched as digital-only releases at $40 apiece, with DLC sold separately on top of that. There were no technical improvements to speak of, and as Push Square reported in its reviews, the ports still carry the same exploits that caused headaches in the original PS3 versions. For returning fans hoping for any kind of remaster treatment, there was nothing new on the table.
The publication’s review of Black Ops 2 called it “Overcharged for a Multiplayer Classic” and tagged the experience “Rip-ops.” Those are not phrases that typically precede strong sales charts.
And yet here we are. The digital-only release format is its own small story. The absence of a disc version tends to generate loud pushback in certain corners of gaming communities, but that friction clearly did not translate into a meaningful sales drag. Both games are expected by Push Square to rank among the best-selling PS5 titles of the year.
What the Numbers Actually Tell Us
There is something worth sitting with in this data. The Circana engagement tracker is specifically designed to capture the behavior of evergreen titles, the kind of games people return to week after week rather than burning through in a weekend. Fortnite and Roblox, as reported, occupy the top three slots without interruption. The fact that two brand-new ports of fifteen-year-old shooters broke into that company says something about the enduring pull of Black Ops specifically.
Black Ops 2 in particular has a reputation. Its multiplayer is still talked about with genuine affection by a generation of players who grew up on it. Whether $40 with no improvements was a fair ask is a reasonable debate, but the audience for that specific experience clearly exists and was willing to pay for it.
For Activision, the lesson is probably the opposite of uncomfortable. The company tested how much friction the market would absorb on a nostalgia purchase with no production uplift, and the answer was apparently quite a lot. What that means for future catalog ports is the more interesting question going forward.
How did Call of Duty Black Ops 2 perform on the Circana tracker?
According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, Black Ops 2 debuted at sixth place on the US Player Engagement Tracker for the week ending July 11, 2026, while the original Black Ops landed at ninth.
How many players did the Black Ops PS5 ports attract in the US?
According to Sony's player tracker widget, as reported by YouTuber Mystic's podcast, Black Ops 2 drew 5.25 million US players and the original Black Ops pulled in 1.9 million, though some skepticism about the accuracy of that tool remains.
What did the Black Ops PS5 ports include for $40?
Both titles launched as digital exclusives at $40 each with DLC sold separately and no gameplay improvements. As reported by Push Square, the ports still contain the old exploits that affected the original PS3 releases.