Mike Ybarra, the man who led Blizzard Entertainment for years and maintained the company through the Activision acquisition, has spoken out about the CoD/Battlefield rivalry in 2025 – and he believes that BF is going to come out on top by a pretty wide margin.
Call of Duty and Battlefield were long pitted in a close battle against each other, with most gamers falling on one side of the military shooter fence. The 2010s were dominated by this argument, with CoD releasing every year and Battlefield sometimes coming in to knock Activision’s flagship military shooter off its pedestal.
However, Battlefield had fallen out of favor for almost a decade. Following Battlefield 1 in 2016, the series had struggled to gain a foothold.
Battlefield 6 is a return to form for the series, however, with the game already being the most popular Battlefield (at least on Steam) as a result of its beta. Ybarra believes that CoD’s fate is sealed this year, and that competition may force them to change.
Former Blizzard CEO believes BF6 will dominated by BO7
Call of Duty has been on top of the food chain when it comes to military shooters for a very long time. Outside of CS, it completely dominates the market and is still the go-to competitive FPS, especially for console players.
However, there’s a great deal of fatigue with CoD’s current formula. Over-the-top cosmetics have rubbed players the wrong way, moving the game in a direction that’s very different from the iconic games that got most players into the series.
Battlefield 6, meanwhile, is going back to basics. It’s very reminiscent of Battlefield 3 and 4 in how it plays, going back to the classic four-class system and focusing more on an immersive experience rather than selling players flashy cosmetics.
He claimed that BF would “stomp” CoD this year, forcing Call of Duty to improve and re-think their formula in order to survive. While Activision has reportedly said that they aren’t scared of EA’s new game, the former Blizzard CEO isn’t so sure.
“CoD has gone downhill for years,” Ybarra explained in a follow-up tweet. “It’s a mess. Cheating, heavy UI/install, rainbow colors. People are sick of it. Luckily BF will force them to change.”
In reality, it’s hard to say which game will come out on top, especially considering that CoD will be on Game Pass. There’s a good chance people who want to play CoD won’t have to pay the asking price anyways and will be able to just play both if they want.
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