For Call of Duty fans, the dedicated Black Ops 6 reveal was the best part of the recent Xbox Games Showcase. While we saw plenty of other exciting titles like DOOM: The Dark Ages and Gears of War: E-Day, there’s nothing quite like a new CoD game. As such, it’s not a surprise to see which older Call of Duty games have shot up the Xbox charts since.
With Black Ops 6 taking all the headlines, both Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 3 have skyrocketed up the most popular paid charts on Xbox’s digital storefront. Neither of these games ever fade out of public discussion for very long. However, now is the perfect time for players to brush up on the Black Ops franchise’s finest entries.
Two Old CoD Games Explode in Popularity Thanks to Black Ops 6
There are likely two main reasons behind these specific games taking precedence over other Black Ops titles. Those are the former’s campaign and the latter’s Zombies mode.
Black Ops 2 looks set to tie directly into Black Ops 6’s campaign. After all, the new game is set a decade after the 1980s flashbacks from the 2012 game. Its main antagonist Raul Menendez will have a presence in the new game’s campaign, likely haunting Frank Woods’ psyche. In Black Ops 2, Menendez shoots Woods’ legs just after Alex Mason’s death, leaving him wheelchair-bound. Woods will definitely have an axe to grind in Black Ops 6, so now is the perfect time to go back and remind yourself of what happened in Black Ops 2.
When it comes to Black Ops 3’s popularity, though, there’s one primary reason: Zombies. After all, the 2015 game is arguably the definitive CoD Zombies experience thanks to its Zombies Chronicles DLC pack. This included eight classic maps from World at War and the previous Black Ops games. In that sense, it’s the most convenient way to play the best Zombies maps like Kino Der Toten, Verruckt, and Moon.
Black Ops 6 looks set to be a return to form for Zombies. It sees round-based matches return in place of MW3’s extraction-based structure. As a Treyarch game, it’ll likely also pick up the overarching Zombies narrative. While the studio did assist with MW3’s Zombies mode and its continuation of the Dark Aether storyline, Black Ops 6 will likely push that even further.
As such, it’s not much of a surprise to see Black Ops 2 and 3 surging up the Xbox charts. They’re both the most essential games to catch up on prior to Black Ops 6. As a result, don’t be surprised to see them continue this upward trend. Who knows – they might even land on Game Pass in the run-up to launch!
