CoD, Battlefield & Halo Are Launching Within a Month of Each Other; What Motivates Their Fans and Sets Them Apart?

The first person-shooter scene is about to see its biggest face off in almost a decade. Call of Duty: Vanguard, Battlefield 2042, and Halo Infinite are all launching in Q4 2021. And for the first time ever, all three games are coming to console and PC at the same time.

While there is plenty of crossover between fans of these three historic franchises, there are also key differences that distinguish these player bases from each other. This marks some key opportunities (but also threats) for Activision Blizzard, EA, and Xbox Game Studios alike.

In this article, we’ll use our newly released Game Franchise data to evaluate the similarities and differences of players of these franchises. This study, based on a survey with 8,024 respondents aged 10 to 65 in the U.S, U.K., Germany, and France, offers in-depth insights on 80 of the most relevant gaming franchises. For this article, we’ll mainly look at:

• Player demographics, crossover, and motivations to play.
• Reasons gamers stopped playing Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo.
• How likely gamers are to play upcoming titles in these franchises.

Note: We are excluding F2P Warzone from the Call of Duty (CoD) franchise for this analysis. As both Battlefield and Halo have a paywall, excluding F2P users provides the most accurate comparison If you’re interested in data on that title, get in touch!

Overlap and Demographics for Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo Players

We asked our respondents which franchises they played in the last six months. Zooming in on players that have played at least one of these three shooter franchises, we found that Call of Duty has the largest reach.

• 33% of this group only played Call of Duty (we’ll refer to them as CoD players)
• 8% only played Battlefield (Battlefield players)
• 9% only played Halo (Halo players)

Looking at the playing funnel for these titles, we see CoD also scored far higher on awareness while Battlefield and Halo were known by a smaller, but similar share of respondents.

Still, there is significant overlap between players of all three games. One out of every five players of these titles played all three franchises.

Players of CoD, Battlefield, and Halo are demographically very similar, which is to be expected given the genre similarities and the high player overlap between the three franchises.

Players of all three franchises skew male and the most common age group is 21 to 35. Halo boasts the highest share of female gamers, while Call of Duty has the highest percentage of its players aged 10 to 20.

Our data also shows that those who play one of these franchises are significantly more likely to start playing one of the others in the future. For example, 40% of CoD players said they are somewhat or very likely to play Battlefield or Halo in the future.

For each of these shooters, there are user-acquisition opportunities galore. But that also means there’s a threat of losing precious engagement time—and therefore revenues—to the competition.

Why Do Gamers Play Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo? Why Do They Stop?

As part of our Consumer Insights – Game Franchises survey, we asked our respondents why they play games.

Our data shows that players of either of the three franchises tend to play for reasons relating to teamwork and achieving goals (vs. an average of all respondents). Compared to CoD players, Battlefield and Halo players are even more likely to enjoy playing for teamwork and collaboration, across both console and PC.

When we excluded gamers who played more than one of these franchises, we found that this analysis still held true. However, the difference appears to be driven more by PC players than those on console.

Call of Duty’s slightly lower share for teamwork makes sense. Battlefield and Halo are regarded as more mechanically deliberate and slower-paced than Call of Duty. As a result, strategy and teamwork are often a bigger part of the gameplay.

Therefore, Call of Duty may be more accessible for casual players. Solo online play can be less daunting. This is reflected in our data, which shows that CoD players are more likely to play to relax and unwind—especially those on console.

We’ve discussed which players are engaging with each franchise and why. But what about the players who disengage?

As you can see, CoD players are less likely to leave the game due to a lack of content. This makes sense:

• Call of Duty releases annually on console and PC, whereas Battlefield and Halo launches are fewer and further between. Call of Duty inherently has more content.
• As its games are more recent, the Call of Duty franchise often has a more robust live-service roadmap than the other two franchises, meaning more frequent content updates.
• Call of Duty typically has a wider range of game modes than Battlefield, including single-player, multiplayer, and a zombies mode. This is especially true this year, as Battlefield 2042 has no single-player mode and Halo Infinite’s launch is a little more stripped-back due to development challenges.
• Finally, Call of Duty’s competitive progression is often more extensive. Players very frequently unlock new equipment, weapon attachments, and cosmetics. Halo’s developer, 343 Industries, aims to create more of an even playing field for weapon loadouts to make competitive modes feel more skill-based.

How Likely Are Gamers to Buy the New Battlefield or Halo?

Of all the gamers we surveyed, 30% have pre-ordered or intend to play Battlefield 2042 vs. 25% for Halo Infinite. Call of Duty: Vanguard was not yet announced at the time of the survey.

While Battlefield 2042 trumps Halo here, it is worth noting that Battlefield is launching across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Meanwhile, Halo is one of Xbox’s big exclusive games this year (on Xbox and PC) and is therefore not launching on the PS4 and PS5, which together boast a huge install base.

That said, Halo Infinite is part of Xbox Game Pass, which 13% of our overall survey respondents—and 44% of the Halo players—use. And its multiplayer mode is free to play. Meanwhile, Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty: Vanguard are full-price releases.

We expect to see Halo’s player shares, awareness, and success increasing significantly by the next time we conduct this survey.

To conclude, the data we’ve discussed in this article shows that CoD, Battlefield, and Halo players have a similar profile. Call of Duty is ahead of the pack in terms of player share, but there is significant crossover between players of each title.

What’s more, gamers who play only one of these titles are considering checking out the others. This marks a significant opportunity for Activision Blizzard, EA, and Xbox Game Studios. With the right marketing push or promotion, these companies could reasonably and quickly acquire new fans.

Luckily, we have the data to help. What we’ve covered in this article is just a small selection of the metrics and franchises available in our Game Franchise data on 80 top gaming franchises.

Some of the most successful game companies are already working with us to:

• Analyze franchise funnels
• Identify valuable audiences
• Improve acquisition and retention

Want to join them? Reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re happy to help you too.