Xbox 360 Call of Duty Classics Shoot to the Top of Top Paid Games List

Classic Call of Duty games have shot up Xbox’s top paid games list, fuelled by recent improvements to matchmaking and an eye-catching sale.

2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is currently the top paid game on Xbox, followed by 2012’s Black Ops 2, 2010’s Black Ops, and 2011’s Modern Warfare 3. Treyarch’s World at War and Black Ops 3 are also in the top ten.

These older Call of Duty games are outselling big-hitters such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Hogwart’s Legacy, Elden Ring, and even last year’s Modern Warfare 2.

It’s a remarkable resurgence for a collection of games once thought consigned to the history books, but recent developments have rekindled interest in this golden age of Call of Duty, fuelled by apparent matchmaking improvements made by Microsoft itself.

Reports indicate thousands of people were online over the weekend playing these old Call of Duty games after word of surprise server fixes spread among the community like wildfire. However, reports also indicate lobbies are still afflicted by hackers, boosters, and cheaters.

Interestingly, alongside this supposed Microsoft effort to sort out old-school Call of Duty came a sweeping sale targeting many of the games. Microsoft and Activision have yet to comment on what’s happening (IGN has asked), and the radio silence is fuelling speculation both companies are preparing to drop the Call of Duty back catalogue on Game Pass.

Microsoft is on the home straight of its long-winded $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard, and while Activision has so far resisted the temptation to dump Call of Duty into Microsoft’s subscription service (boss Bobby Kotick isn’t a fan), circumstances can change. Blizzard just announced plans to release some of its games on Steam for the first time, for example, starting with Overwatch 2.

While we wait to find out, thousands are getting stuck into classic Call of Duty, with in-game player counters indicating astonishing concurrent peaks above 100,000. While these last last-gen trackers are unreliable, it’s clear the Call of Duty community is having something of a moment.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.