Call of Duty Ports Outsold Halo By 32 To 1 On PS5

Call of Duty’s older Black Ops games have reportedly demolished Halo: Campaign Evolved on PS5, outselling the remake by an estimated 32 to 1.

The figures come from Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott, who shared the comparison in a post on X. According to Elliott, the PS5 ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 collectively sold nearly 11 million more copies than Halo’s remake on the platform.

That is a brutal gap for Microsoft’s flagship shooter, especially after years of inconsistent support, including the lengthy wait caused when Halo Infinite Season 3 was delayed.

Black Ops Reportedly Beat Halo By 32 To 1

Elliott’s estimates indicate that Halo: Campaign Evolved sold around 350,000 copies on PS5. Meanwhile, Call of Duty Black Ops and Call of Duty Black Ops II sold 3 million and 8.2 million on PS5, respectively.

These are third-party estimates rather than official sales figures from Microsoft or Activision. Still, the disparity is difficult to ignore. 

The result becomes even rougher when looking beyond PS5. Halo: Campaign Evolved reportedly reached approximately 1.5 million sales across all platforms, meaning the two Black Ops ports still performed comfortably better on PS5 alone. 

Halo sold 351K copies on PS5 in July and 452K on PlayStation to date (almost $28M). $60 was WAY too much for this one. And for comparison, Halo has sold through 212K on Steam and around 900K on Xbox (console and PC). – Ryhs Elliott breaking down Halo sales by platform.

Halo’s $60 Price Was A Tough Sell

Price likely played a substantial role, according to Rhys Elliott. Black Ops and Black Ops 2 are just straight 1080p ports of the 2010 and 2012 classics, costing 40$ dollar each without a subscription and 20$ each with a PS Plus subscription.

Halo: Campaign Evolved, on the other hand, launched at $60 without multiplayer. Although it featured visual and gameplay improvements, the remake still had to convince players to pay full price for a campaign they may have already experienced in multiple forms. Also, it lacked the multiplayer, which is one of the defining features of Halo.

CoD got it. Halo didn’t. Sixty dollars for what’s essentially a graphical touch-up of a 2001 game was always gonna be a roughsell, and players clearly weren’t having it.

That proposition becomes even harder on PlayStation, where Halo lacks the history and established audience it enjoys on Xbox. Call of Duty has spent decades building its presence on Sony’s consoles, while Halo is effectively starting from scratch.

Microsoft bringing Halo to PlayStation was still a major step, but platform availability alone was never guaranteed to produce blockbuster sales. These estimates suggest that recognizable content, sensible pricing, and an existing audience mattered far more than the novelty of seeing Master Chief on PS5.