Activision is making Black Ops 6 free just in time for Battlefield 6’s launch

It feels like Battlefield 6 has reignited the franchise’s old rivalry with Call of Duty after several years during which EA’s series was simply too irrelevant to compete with the Activision juggernaut. The COD developers have taken EA’s shots with calmness so far, but a week-long free trial for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which is kicking off on October 9, 2025, seems to be the company’s return salvo — after all, the trial period begins just a day before BF6 launches.

Activision is inviting anyone interested to try out everything Black Ops 6 has to offer, making the campaign, multiplayer, and zombies experiences available for free temporarily, both to advertise the sequel coming later this year and to put a bit of a damper on its rival’s release.

EA’s marketing campaign has been extremely successful in positioning BF6 as a solution to many of the frustrations parts of the FPS community feel about modern Call of Duty, such as by declaring that the title won’t feature any goofy skins or collaborations — a point it recently underlined by killing off a whole bunch of celebrities in a live action trailer for the game before replacing them with run-of-the-mill soldiers.

Aside from giving the community something to debate about, EA’s aggressive marketing already had a tangible impact on Activision’s plans, though: Black Ops 7 will aim for improved visual cohesion as well, which means that all the skins purchased in Black Ops 6 will not carry over to the sequel (though players can continue using them in Warzone). This change of policy hasn’t been uncontroversial in the Call of Duty community, causing Activision a bit of a headache.

While the battle for public opinion has been going strongly in BF6’s favor, its launch will be the true test — and if Activision can just make it a tiny bit more challenging with a cheeky free trial, then that’s a clever move to pull.

BF6 will be out on October 10 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, while BLOPS7 follows on November 14, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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