GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4: VGC Brackets Them as Bahl's Two Biggest Games

Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl said "no offense to Zelda" in an exchange Video Games Chronicle reported on October 15, 2026, and the outlet's square brackets, not his uninterrupted words, name Grand Theft Auto 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 as the two biggest games of the year. He is betting your friends list holds the line even when Leonida opens up.

Reported Video Games Chronicle quotes Activision CMO Tyler Bahl; Rockstar and Nintendo have not commented

No Offense to Zelda, Says Activision's Marketing Chief

Bahl's remark answered The Game Business editor Chris Dring during a conversation about which releases drive new console hardware. VGC placed the game titles in square brackets inside Bahl's quote, meaning the exact pairing of GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4 as the biggest games was the outlet's editorial insertion into his answer.

• Dring conceded he had called GTA 6 and a Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake this year's Barbenheimer pair and left Call of Duty out when discussing new console sales.
• Bahl countered that more players booting up dashboards and taking the dust off their Xbox puts more eyeballs on Call of Duty.
• He said Activision's research shows players care most that their friends are online, not about combat or gunplay.
• He pointed to cross-platform squads spanning PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch 2, which he called a new platform for the franchise this year.

Does 19 November Empty the Lobby?

When asked if Call of Duty player numbers will drop on the November 19 GTA 6 release date cited in VGC's question after Modern Warfare 4 ships on October 23, Bahl did not guarantee the lobbies stay full. Instead, as VGC reported, Bahl hedged that they will see how it plays out and suggested Call of Duty might actually see a slight uptick if players decide to play a little of both games.

Anyone who watched their regular five-stack vanish from other shooters the week the Cayo Perico loop or original Heists hit GTA Online knows how hard a Rockstar launch pulls on a shared party chat. VGC notes that annual Call of Duty entries regularly top US sales charts except in years anchored by Rockstar releases like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption 2, or Hogwarts Legacy. The same report adds that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 finished fifth last year per Circana, behind Battlefield 6, NBA 2K26, and Borderlands 4, so Bahl's pitch is a commercial argument for shared party time, not a guaranteed chart crown.

Earlier headlines framed the autumn clash differently, with a PC Gamer headline reporting a Modern Warfare 4 lead who was not scared of the GTA 6 black hole and called the overlap a little head-to-head, and a GamesRadar headline citing an expert who called Nintendo's fanbase the only one loyal enough to bet against Rockstar. We have already tracked how the shooter nods back with a Sin District parody on a Modern Warfare 4 television and weighed Take-Two's $8 billion fiscal bet on GTA 6. What to watch next between October 23 and November 19 is whether your console friends list actually splits time between both games or parks the whole squad in Leonida.