Call of Duty and Battlefield “struggled to stand out” over Christmas period, according to analyst

Live service games were the main revenue drivers over the Christmas period, with Arc Raiders maintaining its hold at No.3 while Call of Duty and Battlefield “struggled to stand out.”

That’s according to Newzoo’s market analysis manager Tianyi Gu, who said Call of Duty continued to face “mounting internal and external challenges” as it dropped to No.5 on its revenue charts last month whereas Battlefield fell to No.8.

Newzoo’s data spans the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. In comparison, Circana recently reported that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped the US charts for both physical and digital sales in the US during the holidays.

Battlefield 6 remained 2025’s top-selling game in the US by dollar sales, according to Circana. It debuted as the best-selling game for 2025 in the country, and sold over seven million units in three days.

However, Gu suggests that Battlefield 6 “struggled to maintain the momentum seen at launch” when accounting for data Newzoo collected from other countries.

Elsewhere, Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 broke the Top 20 on Newzoo’s revenue charts for December 2025.

Pokémon rose ten places to No. 11 following the release of its Mega Dimensions DLC, “which caused a significant revenue bump” as a result.

Clair Obscur also rose ten places to No.16, with Gu noting its recognition at The Game Awards and a “thank you” update for boosting its sales.

Gu also highlighted the impact of Amazon’s Fallout series during the holidays, which premiered its second season on December 16.

According to Newzoo’s data, the series drove increased interest in monthly active users for the franchise and experienced an increase of 42%. Although, Gu noted that this was “far below the 500% spike seen during the first season’s release.”

Revenue for the Fallout franchise rose 59% month-on-month, said Gu, “but this was largely driven by a DLC launch for Fallout 76.”

Analyst data shared with GamesIndustry.biz previously estimated the franchise experienced a substantial increase in sales over Christmas following Fallout Season 2’s premiere.

Looking at the overall revenue for 2025, Gu said that it was flat year-on-year according to Newzoo’s tracking scope.

She also highlighted that “revenue from new releases grew by 21.5% year-on-year, supported by major launches such as Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.”

In the US, Circana reported that video game spending was 1% above 2024 at $60.7 billion.