Black Ops 2 dominates July on PS5 as Microsoft cuts data flow

Circana's July 2026 report on the American market delivers two very different pieces of information. The first is commercial: the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 port on PS5 claimed the top spot for best-selling title in the United States, confirming persistent player appetite for franchise classics refreshed for modern hardware. The second is structural and far more consequential: Microsoft has stopped reporting its download sales figures to partner tracking organizations, with Circana leading the charge in North America and GSD across Europe.

A port that proves nostalgia still has a price tag

Black Ops 2, originally released in 2012 by Treyarch, remains one of the franchise's most celebrated entries. Its July arrival on PS5 lacked any blockbuster launch fanfare, yet the title claimed the top sales spot during what is historically a slow month. This isn't an isolated phenomenon: the return of Halo: The Master Chief Collection to additional platforms and the various re-releases of The Last of Us Part I (Naughty Dog, 2022) have shown that console players are willing to repay for experiences they've already had, provided the technical overhaul delivers. Black Ops 2's July dominance also reflects the weakness of this year's summer release calendar. When fresh launches become scarce, well-executed ports scoop up an audience that was just waiting for an excuse to play.

Microsoft cuts off the data spigot: who really loses?

Microsoft's decision to stop sharing digital sales data with Circana and GSD is deliberate, not a technical oversight. In practical terms, every title sold as a download on Xbox or through Microsoft's PC store vanishes from the industry's official radar.

The consequences are multiple. Third-party publishers who rely on this data to calibrate launches, adjust marketing budgets, or assess competition lose a reliable information source on an entire market segment. Journalists and analysts who depend on Circana to track market trends will have to work with structurally incomplete charts. And players themselves will receive rankings that no longer reflect the true reality of the North American market.

Microsoft isn't the first player to leverage opacity with its figures — Nintendo has maintained a selective relationship with tracking firms for years, sharing data only when convenient — but the scale of Xbox and PC's footprint makes this withdrawal particularly significant.

Charts already imperfect, now outright incomplete

Let's be honest: Circana rankings weren't a perfect mirror of the market before this announcement. Digital sales on PlayStation and Nintendo were already partially estimated rather than directly reported depending on the period. Subscriptions like Game Pass have long muddied the waters on individual Microsoft game performance.

But there's a difference between imperfect data and deliberately withheld information. Microsoft is crossing a line: embracing transparent opacity. At a time when the company is stacking acquisitions—Activision Blizzard chief among them, finalized in 2023—and carries heavy weight on the Western market, pulling its figures from circulation amounts to playing poker with everyone's cards hidden, including partners who need this information to make industrial decisions.

Market data transparency isn't a service Microsoft owes the media. But it serves the entire ecosystem, independent studios included, who calibrate their releases based on competitive landscape. This withdrawal destabilizes an already strained analytical tool, and Microsoft knows it.