Battlefield 3 still behind Call of Duty on XBL chart

By Fred Dutton Published 3 November, 2011

More people played Black Ops and MW2 last week.

Battlefield 3 has failed to knock Call of Duty from its perch on top of the weekly Xbox Live activity chart.

EA's pretender debuted in third place behind both Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. Gears of War 3 came in fourth and FIFA 12 in fifth.

Here's the full global unique user chart, as seen on Major Nelson's blog:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  2. Modern Warfare 2
  3. Battlefield 3
  4. Gears of War 3
  5. FIFA 12
  6. Halo: Reach
  7. Batman: Arkham City
  8. Madden NFL 12
  9. Forza Motorsport 4
  10. GTA IV
  11. Call of Duty 4
  12. NBA 2K12
  13. FIFA Soccer 11
  14. NHL12
  15. Halo 3
  16. Battlefield: Bad Co. 2
  17. Call of Duty: WaW
  18. NCAA Football 12
  19. Dead Island
  20. Red Dead Redemption

Over on the Xbox Live Arcade sales chart, Dungeon Defenders took the top spot, with new entry Daytona USA crossing the finish line in second place. Here's how everything else lined up:

  1. Dungeon Defenders
  2. Daytona USA
  3. Pinball FX2
  4. Real Stell
  5. Dead Rising 2: Case West
  6. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
  7. Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone
  8. Bejeweled 3
  9. NBA Jam: On Fire Edition
  10. Fruit Ninja Kinect
  11. Castle Crashers
  12. Guardian Heroes
  13. Orcs Must Die!
  14. Toy Soldiers: Cold War
  15. Trials HD
  16. The War of the Worlds
  17. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
  18. Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012
  19. Worms: Ultimate Mayhem
  20. Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (59) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • lambtron #1 7 months ago

    Hardly suprising.

  • natashaspice #2 7 months ago

    yes lets just assume that most people bought it on pc and ps3.

  • dpb135 #3 7 months ago

    Maybe everyone was trying to prestige to get the extra unlocks in Mw3?

  • des #4 7 months ago

    "Above and Beyond the Call"

    1.Call of Duty:Black Ops
    2.Modern Warfare 2
    3.Battlefield 3

    EA lol

  • Lunatic4ever #5 7 months ago

    I'm wondering where in the list MW3 will make its entry.

  • DoctorZoidberg #6 7 months ago

    How is Batman AC at 7, a game that has no online mode (that I know of)?

    Also, can't account for peoples lack of taste, CoD for show, Battlefield for a pro.

  • Bennyjj81 #7 7 months ago

    Perhaps they don't count people like me who have been booted out of a match every single time they try and play the damn game. Sort it out!!!!

  • Collymilad #8 7 months ago

    Did anyone think otherwise?

    People who play CoD all the time only care about CoD and are blinkered to anything else. So it's to be expected.

    BF3 pisses all over CoD in MP. It's laughable that it get's outsold/played.

  • arcam #9 7 months ago

    So when MW3 is released is it going to be Call of Duty in positions 1, 2 and 3 on Xbox Live? You guys really need a little more imagination...

  • Mr_Wizard #10 7 months ago

    @DoctorZoidberg IIRC the activity chart isn't just for multiplayer. It ranks by number of man-minutes played by users who are logged into Live.

  • TagemandBagem #11 7 months ago

    But..but, but they shipped 10 million copies!

  • rob_of_the_robots #12 7 months ago

    It is rather annoying when you are about to finish a match as MVP as well as unlocking a few upgrades and then you get disconnected leaving you with nothing.

  • Naka1888 #13 7 months ago

    Can't see Battlefield ever topping COD in the near future.

  • revan8 #14 7 months ago

    At 2nd post, it sold most on x box. It is good that cod is top. Shows the idiots stay on the weaker product. If cod players came to bf3 things like rush mode just wouldn't work.

  • speedjack #15 7 months ago

    I'd also loved to know how many of the BF3 'players' actually managed to connect to a game.

  • revan8 #16 7 months ago

    At rob of the robots, that only happens when.u doing well. I have yet to be disconnected when having a bad match.

  • george1976 #17 7 months ago

    So what???

  • geeza2020 #18 7 months ago

    Good. CoD can keep its hordes of chavs and children.

  • HeNiCiDe1988 #19 7 months ago

    not super suprising but still kinda considering how much a of a junk game MW2 is with commando and retarded perk one man army and noob tubes galore.

    Black Ops is actually pretty fun when I played it, I would of liked to see Battlefield 3 2nd at least.

    But 360 is more of COD Lovers then any other community but it is a bit annoying the techno problems on the PS3 BF3 such as constantly seperating me and my friends when we squad up which BLOPS for a while had issues with but not so much any more and MW2 never have problems with it plus other d/C problems with BF3.

    Plus the prestige deals for MW3 is a great way of marketing. But a game hitting straight in the third spot is still pretty well done. Do you know what he PC communities ranking is? I bet you it will be BF3 at top.

  • Whizzo #20 7 months ago

    While I'm sure the reason for that is down to the fact more people own those titles, the fact that it was double XP in both CoD titles over the weekend probably helped as well.

  • Naka1888 #21 7 months ago

    @geeza2020

    Don't get why people say this, I know loads of people that play COD who are neither 'chavs' nor 'children'.

  • rob_of_the_robots #22 7 months ago

    "I have yet to be disconnected when having a bad match."

    It's true, it always seems to be when I've unlocked something. It also happened when I'd finally unlocked IR flares for the jets after getting shot down loads of time so I'll have to unlock them again now. :(

  • jonno394 #23 7 months ago

    Considering there are around 13million copies of Black Ops compared to the 2.5 mil BF3 out there on the 360, I find this hardly surprising esepcially as a large amount of games will be playing Black Ops up until MW3 comes out.

  • magicpanda #24 7 months ago

    Modern Warfare, the chavs game of choice. They cant afford BF3.

  • Donaldthescotishtwin #25 7 months ago

    Black ops is a great game,and I'm speaking from the demo. Haven't played BF3 yet.

  • Sodding_Gamer #26 7 months ago

    @Collymilad

    Totally agree. The amount of people I know that have just fifa and cod in their game collection is ridiculous. But yeah considering PC was BF3's lead platform and people playing cod to get them sorted for next week, of course this is going to happen. Fuck knows why Batman is there though!

  • Sharzam #27 7 months ago

    I would be interested to know the console/pc split but only EA would know that due to PC DD.

  • GAmbrose #28 7 months ago

    @Naka1888

    There are a lot of Dave's though (See Eurogamer reviews of Black Op's map packs)

  • Fightclubber #29 7 months ago

    COD will reign supreme till the dawn of fucking time, its a brand. The two games could swap titles and the one called COD would still win out even tho its a different pissing game.
    Battlefield is a bigger more layered more tactical game, and alot of people cant be fucked with that, which is a shame as its a stunning game online.
    And its even proved to me personally that it can beat COD at its own game with a conquest match on the metro level, which is fast infantry combat just like COD but 100 times more intense than anything COD seems to do.
    Its like reliving the gun fight in Heat, but in a subway and without Tom Sizemore
    Edited by Fightclubber at 03/11/11 @ 16:29

  • DavoTheDiv #30 7 months ago

    Maybe thats' becuase BF3 has only been out a week? doh?!

  • UltimaTim #31 7 months ago

    Why are so many people still playing GTA 4?

  • Xardan #32 7 months ago

    It is absolutely pathetic how all these people think BF3 caters to their more mature hardcore high brow audience. There is barely a difference you sad sods.

  • university_zippy #33 7 months ago

    Daytonaaaaahhhhh...Can't resist =)

  • Phantom_Dynamite #34 7 months ago

    I'm playing Battlefield and Gears on-line at the mo and very happy to, don't care about any one else.

  • telboy007 #35 7 months ago

    Space Marine has disappeared. :(

  • Naka1888 #36 7 months ago

    @Xardan

    Well said

  • captain-hurrdurr #37 7 months ago

    @magicpanda Modern Warfare costs more then BF3 because Activision are money grabbing ba****ds. BF3 is the superior game by far and Activision will not be getting my money.

  • daver #38 7 months ago

    @UltimaTim

    Cos it's still really good fun?

  • higganos #39 7 months ago

    Anyone questioning why Batman is on the list whilst it doean't contain a multiplayer element.........it's while playing ANY game whilst logged into xbox LIVE.

  • revan8 #40 7 months ago

    Xardan, there is a difference. Clear one, when I play cod there is a high percentage of kids playing and anyone I know who plays cod over battlefield are generally more casual gamers who don't really play many games. And with the people I know who prefer bf they are people who love gaming and buy lots of games, they are also less abusive etc this pattern is reflective of the general online population. When I play bf there are still kids and there still idiots on there but just to a much lesser amount to cod. Cod a good game but it is v mainstream and attracts twats.
    Edited by revan8 at 03/11/11 @ 17:33

  • joelstinton #41 7 months ago

    Revan- You are making a lot of assumptions and generalisations about who plays what. You considered that some people just perfer the silky smooth gameeplay of COD? BF3 is a great game, i love it, but people have different tastes. I love gaming. But i like picking up and playing a game of COD. There is nothing wrong with that. at all.

    And it seems to me that COD players arn't that abusive. Look at all the trolling that goes on in COD articles from BF3 fans and compare that to BF3 articles where it just mainly BF3 fanboys going 'MW3 is shit LOL'.

  • revan8 #42 7 months ago

    I know, I like cod too and don't abuse etc. Just saying "in general" cod players are younger and are more abusive. That mainly comes when things become popular culture, which cod is because it is so huge. Bf is not popular culture, it is only gaming circles. where everyone knows cod even if they don't play games.
    Edited by revan8 at 03/11/11 @ 17:55

  • DrStrangelove #43 7 months ago

    lol @ fanboys

    BF = CoD with vehicles. And half the frame rate.

  • Daeltaja #44 7 months ago

    What is wrong with the world!

  • marmaduke #45 7 months ago

    @revan8 - I'd say given that Battlefield 3 shifted around 5 million copies in a week- not counting digital PC downloads- it's the very definition of "mainstream gaming". I don't see how you can claim membership of some sort of elite here.

    They're both games in which gruff soldiers shoot each other with very realistic guns. Call of Duty is much more stabby and Battlefield 3 lets you crash helicopters on Dartmoor. That's the only real difference.

    Besides, TF2 wins either way. It's got hats and it's free.

  • Jolly_Armadillo #46 7 months ago

    What is wrong with all of you, all war games are shit

  • AllenSpawn #47 7 months ago

    I love battlefield games... But number 3, does not have enough large vehicle based maps when playing conquest. They are all very CoD like. More caspian borders... Less Tehran highway. Please.

  • thesonglessbird #48 7 months ago

    Who fucking cares?

  • tinners #49 7 months ago

    Good reason for that, you could barely get a game workIng last week, servers seem much better now

  • NeverEatYellowSnow #50 7 months ago

    @revan8

    What a load of bollocks.

  • its-TK421 #51 7 months ago

    @revan8 Have you actually played CoD? To anyone who whinges about kids playing - if that is the case - why the hell don't you just mute them? Is it that they are killing you? Is that your issue? Perhaps repairing tanks is your vibe then. Just please stop with generalising about what type of human being plays CoD - because the comments on Eurogamer lately point to BF3 being populated by blinkered, snobbish prats who haven't the faintest idea of how to get the most out of titles like Black Ops.

  • GAmbrose #52 7 months ago

    My Nephew and his mates all play COD and have done for the past 2 years.

    He is 10.

    If you took an mean average of people's ages I could pretty much guarantee that it would be considerably lower for COD. That's not to suggest in any way that Call of Duty is for children and Battlefield 3 is for adults as that is disingenuous to people who enjoy MW2/Black Ops but it's pretty much a given.

  • rob_of_the_robots #53 7 months ago

    I like the fact that BF is more team based encouraging people to help each other out and making it harder for people to win by just camping.

  • its-TK421 #54 7 months ago

    @rob_of_the_robots Sorry, I'm not trying to be a dick, but you need to know that camping absolutely doesn't equate to "winning" in CoD. If you happen to be in a lobby of campers then you or any team member can equip hardline and a UAV/Spy Plane and just harvest the idiots. The game is set up to punish camping.

    This is my problem with *most* of the CoD hate in these EG comments. It's coming from people who obviously haven't tried to find ways to solve problems with the tools the game gives you on a silver platter.

    Conversely I'm not going to talk crap about BF3 because I don't know enough about it. It looks great.

    And the whole kids thing is just irrelevant. I can only assume that the issue is with them talking trash? If so, then muting them will take all of 1 second. Where is the problem exactly?

    You like teamwork? That's what clans and parties are for. That's why there is in-game chat.

    I'm continually amazed at the time and effort people are investing in bashing CoD on EG.

  • Trigg3rHippie #55 7 months ago

    The easiest games to play won. Simple.

  • its-TK421 #56 7 months ago

    @Trigg3rHippie Or maybe the games that actually worked on Xbox Live won? Simple.

  • IIJAZMANII #57 7 months ago

    Yay!! screw EA!

  • Al_Swearengen #58 7 months ago

    The lowest common denominator will always be more popular. At least it keeps the COD-folk out of our Battlefield.

  • Climhazzard #59 7 months ago

    @joelstinton Think you'll find a lot of CoD players are abusive, even more so with their whiny little voices. The fact is that CoD is more of an arcade shooter with not a massive amount of substance and Battlefield is the opposite.
    And before you call me a Battlefield fanboy, i've played every CoD going, played CoD4 online a lot as at the time on Xbox it was only really that or Halo. Activision are just having the same game released every year with so called 'improvements' just making the gameplay worse.