Key Highlights:
- Activision recently announced a week long free trial for Black Ops 6.
- The trial begins exactly a day before the release of Battlefield 6.
- Activision is not in a good position right now, compared to its rival.
Activision recently announced a week long trial for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, its flagship Call of Duty title from last year. While the move is quite appreciated, the timing of its release does bring several questions – including the fact that this supposed ‘free week’ launches just a day before Battlefield 6’s official launch.
It could be that Activision is wary of the success of Battlefield 6, which it should be, given how poorly the Black Ops 7 beta seems to be performing right now, relative to the standards set by its competition.
Activision Announces a Free Trial for Call of Duty Black Ops 6
As mentioned within the official Call of Duty blog post, Black Ops 6 will be entirely free to play for an entire week, starting from October 9, 2025. This free trial ends on October 16, 2025 at around 10 AM Pacific Time (PT).
Interestingly, this particular free trial holds a lot more in store for players, as opposed to the standard multiplayer focused trials released in the past. Almost the entirety of Black Ops 6’s contents will be included within the trial.
The only thing missing in the free trial is Multiplayer Ranked Play, which is a bit unfortunate.
Also Read: Black Ops 7 Beta Fails to Keep Up With the Battlefield 6 Hype
Content included ranges from the single player campaign, multiplayer modes and every Zombies chapter to date. It’s quite an extensive addition, and brings with it great value – which is something that Activision is desperately trying to push forward.
After all the recently released, ongoing Black Ops 7 beta is far from satisfactory, and most players would agree on the same, with the game holding a fifth of Battlefield 6’s peak player count at present.
Releasing the beta exactly one day ahead of Battlefield 6’s launch is no mere coincidence, and it is quite certain that Electronic Arts’ upcoming release has instilled some fear in Activision.
Battlefield 6 Has Activision Shaking in Its Boots
Battlefield is back, now more than ever. It’s now concluded open beta managed to peak at over 500,000 concurrent players, which is quite the impressive number. Even more so when we consider the fact that Black Ops 7 barely managed to break over 80,000 – as per SteamDB charts.
Player opinions surrounding Black Ops 7 have been mostly negative too, with many lamenting on its lack of precise gunplay and pandering toward newer audiences. This has been followed by complaints of a general lack of innovation, and churning out recycled content (in the form of reused maps and assets) every year.
In a nutshell, most players think that Call of Duty has lost its original charm, and are starting to distance themselves from the franchise. Admittedly, these complaints have grown increasingly vocal in recent months, largely thanks to the release of a major competitor (which wasn’t the case before).
Battlefield 6 is largely shaping up to be a major return to form for the franchise, bringing back fan favorite features with just the right amount of innovation and tweaking to cater to modern audiences.
The previous open beta was tremendously well received, and Activision is quite right to be worried. It could be perhaps why they have decided to release a free week for Black Ops 6, including a majority of its content in the update.
However, this is unlikely to end well for Activision. Most players are genuinely not interested in Call of Duty at this point, and Black Ops 7 is shaping to be a mediocre release, which will only turn the tides in favor of Battlefield.
