Open up Reddit, X, YouTube comments, whatever you use, and it can feel like Black Ops 7 is on life support, yet the moment you fire up the game and queue into a match, you are dropped into a lobby almost instantly, and sometimes you even bump into people bragging about their latest grind in a mode that feels easier than it should, something like a CoD BO7 Bot Lobby, which just makes the whole "dead game" narrative feel even more out of touch.

Noise Vs Reality

There is a big gap between what you see shouted online and what is actually happening on the servers, and you notice it fast once you stop doomscrolling and just play; yes, the same three complaints show up on repeat, weapon balance, matchmaking, skill based stuff, but the player counts keep sitting near the top on console and PC, and the queues stay short, so either everyone is secretly hate playing or the loudest posts are not speaking for the rest of the community.

Why People Keep Logging In

If you have played any live service shooter in the last few years, you kind of know the deal, the progression loop in BO7 is built to keep you coming back even when a patch tilts you; you jump on to clear a couple of daily challenges, maybe push the Battle Pass another tier, chase that last camo on a gun you do not even love, and before you know it you have burned through an hour, and stuff like time limited events or rotating store bundles add that little "I should not miss this" nudge that keeps retention high even while folks are complaining about spawns or a broken SMG in the same breath.

Comfort, Cross Play And Habit

Cross play being on by default matters more than it gets credit for, because most groups these days are split across platforms, and BO7 makes it simple to party up without thinking about who is on what, which means if your mates are playing it, you are probably playing it too, and for loads of players who never touch a forum thread the game is just the default shooter you fall back on after work, something familiar where the guns feel roughly how you expect, the maps look like CoD maps, and you do not need to learn some weird new system just to have a decent night.

Criticism And What Actually Counts

That does not mean the criticism is fake, there are real issues with design calls, busted perks, matchmaking swings that feel brutal at times, and those do deserve fixes, but the big picture is that the core audience is basically locked in, partly because the content flow keeps ticking along and partly because the game sits in that comfort space for millions of people, so while social feeds make it sound like everyone is one bad update away from uninstalling, the engagement charts say people are still logging in, still unlocking skins, still chasing that next match, and some are even trying to buy CoD BO7 Bot Lobby shortcuts to make the grind easier.