Activision CMO: GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4 Are the 'Two Biggest Games' of 2026

Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl has declared that Grand Theft Auto VI and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are the two biggest games of 2026, pushing back on suggestions that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake belongs in the same commercial bracket. Speaking to The Game Business, Bahl opened with 'no offense to Zelda' before arguing that both games occupy a tier of cultural and commercial scale that the Nintendo remake simply does not match. The Ocarina of Time remake launches November 5 exclusively on Switch 2, while GTA 6 hits PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19 and Modern Warfare 4 arrives one month earlier, on October 23.

Far from viewing Rockstar's release as a threat, Bahl reframed GTA 6's launch as a potential tailwind for Call of Duty. His argument was that the prospect of playing GTA 6 will pull lapsed console owners back to their hardware, and once those players are back on their dashboards, Modern Warfare 4 gains visibility. Bahl went so far as to suggest that Activision 'might actually see a slight uptick' around GTA 6's launch window, with players dividing their time between both titles rather than treating them as a binary choice.

Consumer data lends some credibility to both games' standing. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reported that August purchase intent for Modern Warfare 4 sat at 15 percent among US console and PC gamers, compared to 10.4 percent for the Ocarina remake. Piscatella cautioned that the per-potential-player intent for Zelda is proportionally higher, reflecting the smaller Switch 2 install base versus the combined reach of PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC — the three platforms where GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4 will both be available at launch.