On September 30, the Call of Duty Next showcase was livestreamed across multiple platforms. This annual event brought together creators and developers to celebrate one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, and though the livestreaming numbers did not set the world alight, it lived up to the hype with multiple updates and announcements.
The COD Next Showcase 2025 was especially multiplayer-heavy as fans and viewers got multiple updates from members of the multiplayer development team at Treyarch. One key element they’re focusing on this year is adding innovative features to the multiplayer experience, so it feels great for a wide range of players.
This will especially be apparent in the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The developers added that this title, which will be launched on November 14, will have a whopping 18 maps at launch. In fact, viewers got to dig deep into look at a handful of maps like Blackheart, Cortex, Exposure, The Forge, Imprint, and Toshin that will be available to players in the upcoming Beta.
Speaking of Beta, players who pre-ordered Black Ops 7 or who owned a subscription to select Game Pass plans could start playing when early access began on October 2. For everyone else, the Open Beta kicked off on October 5.
Another beloved feature of the franchise that was highlighted was Zombies, with the devs revealing that a bunch of heroes will come together inside the Dark Aether. With as many as eight protagonists coming together, this will end up being one of the largest updates yet to Call of Duty: Zombies.
There were other updates, with one of them being the announcement of a map and multiple POIs to Call of Duty: Warzone. Moreover, Call of Duty: Mobile, which celebrates its sixth anniversary this year, gave fans a look at the upcoming Season 9, which includes a WWE collaboration, the return of the fan-favorite skin, and a new mode coming soon to Call of Duty: Mobile — DMZ: Recon.
In terms of viewership, the COD Next Showcase 2025 reached 588,666 Peak Viewers (PV). It was covered by over 550 channels, including popular Call of Duty creators like Seth "scump" Abner, Timothy "timthetatman" Betar, Anthony "shotzzy" Cuevas-Castro, and Kris "swagg" Lamberson.
Compared to previous COD Next Showcase events as well, it had the lowest viewership figures. However, readers must take into account the fact that this year's edition was airing at the same time as some top esports events and series like the MLBB Professional League, the Apex Legends Global Series, the Overwatch Champions Series, the GP Explorer 3, and, of course, the Valorant Champions 2025.
The online event found a mostly European audience, with English, joined by Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, and Italian, as the most-watched languages. This also reflected the platform preference, as Twitch, the most popular livestreaming service in the Western world, enjoyed much higher traffic than any other service.
The COD Next Showcase 2025 may not have pulled in the kind of audience interest that other video gaming showcases have done this year, but that was never the aim for the organizers. The game remains one of the most recognizable in the global community, and with announcements for the much-anticipated Black Ops 7 supplemented by updates on other titles, fans had a lot to digest at the end of its four-hour run time.
