Xbox boss declares Call Of Duty is bigger than Marvel and the MCU

Ahead of expected layoffs and studio closures, Asha Sharma has taken time out to hype up Xbox’s movie and TV show aspirations, while declaring Call Of Duty to be bigger than the MCU.

With another spree of layoffs all but confirmed to be happening at Xbox in the coming weeks, including the potential closure of anything up to three studios, you would think Xbox boss Asha Sharma would be too busy to do yet more interviews.

And yet she’s had time to gas up Xbox as if everything’s going hunky-dory, proclaiming that she has big plans to make Xbox the biggest entertainment company in the world… in what almost sounds like a bid to move away from video games.

One comment in particular has sparked some raised eyebrows, as Sharma claimed that the Call Of Duty franchise is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This comes from a wider interview at Entertainment Weekly, with both Sharma and Xbox’s executive vice president and chief content officer Matt Booty. The latter mentions how Xbox has ‘over 20 franchises that have made a billion dollars, lifetime’ and that they are merely the ‘stewards’ of those franchises.

Sharma followed that with, ‘You won’t see us try to become the biggest linear provider in the world or anything like that, but I think great games are culture, and culture is entertainment.

‘If you think about it, we’ve got the number two show of all time on Amazon [Fallout], Minecraft was top five in 2025, Call Of Duty is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it all measures. [There’s] more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before.’

We’ve already seen some people take umbrage with the Call Of Duty comment, which is admittedly hard to swallow. Call Of Duty is certainly very popular – it’s one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time – but culturally, no Call Of Duty game has ever generated as much fervour and excitement as certain MCU movies, such as Avengers: Endgame.

This extends to even the trailers. Just this year, a Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer garnered more views in its first 24 hours than any other trailer in history, breaking the record set by GTA 6. And no Call Of Duty is ever going to elicit more hype than GTA 6.

However, Sharma’s claim is technically correct, if you’re looking at things from a financial perspective. According to Wikipedia’s list of the highest grossing media franchises, the MCU has made an estimated $35.2 billion (about £26.6 billion) while Call Of Duty has made an estimated $31 billion (about £23.4 billion).

That’s close enough that Wikipedia might not have the most up-to-date numbers but it’s also possible that Call Of Duty could have the MCU beat in terms of profit – which is information that will never be made public.

However, it’s important to remember that triple-A video games cost much more to buy than movie tickets, so while they are potentially more profitable far less people get to experience them, compared to a movie or TV show.

It’s interesting that Sharma makes this comparison when both franchises have been in quite the rut in recent years. Call Of Duty’s been bleeding players for a long time and last year’s Black Ops 7 was both a critical and commercial failure.

Meanwhile, the post-Endgame era of the MCU has seen more lows than highs, to the point where there are debates over whether audiences are suffering superhero fatigue.

It remains to be seen whether Call Of Duty can start any kind of comeback this year, given the early responses to Modern Warfare 4, but the MCU is currently building up to its next major crossover movie, Avengers Doomsday, which is a two-parter and focuses on Doctor Doom – one of Marvel’s most iconic villains.

Sharma’s other comments are less contentious. The second season of the Fallout show was definitely Amazon’s second most watched returning show ever, when the first episode dropped. And the Minecraft movie is among the highest grossing video game movies, losing out only to the animated Super Mario movies.

It’s thanks to the success of those adaptations that Xbox is keen to triple down on more of them, including a newly announced Sea Of Thieves live action movie.

That movie is being produced by Destin Daniel Cretton who, coincidentally enough, directed three MCU projects: the Shang-Chi movie, the Wonder Man TV show, and the new Spider-Man movie.

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