Activision confirms that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Directed mode has nearly doubled the number of players completing the main Zombies quest. While many Black Ops 6 Zombies players prioritize survival, Directed mode has significantly impacted engagement with the narrative.

Since World at War, the Call of Duty Zombies mode has featured a rich, evolving storyline, significantly expanded upon throughout subsequent iterations, including Black Ops 6. Despite a decline in the overall Black Ops 6 player base, the Zombies mode maintains a large and dedicated community. The wave-based gameplay, focusing on increasingly difficult enemies, often leads players to prioritize upgrading weapons and defenses over story completion. Introduced in Season 1, Black Ops 6's Directed mode has proven remarkably successful.

A recent Call of Duty blog post reveals that Directed mode boosted the main quest completion rate from 4% to 8.23%. This data, based on 480 million hours of gameplay (a small fraction post-Directed mode's November 14th release), demonstrates the mode's effectiveness in achieving Treyarch's goal. While this represents a doubling of completions, Treyarch acknowledges that over 90% of players still don't finish the main quest, indicating ongoing efforts to further improve engagement.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Directed Mode: A Significant Improvement

Part of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Season 1 update (including three new maps and two game modes), Zombies' Directed mode provides structured progression, guiding players through the latest chapter of the Zombies storyline. The storyline's complexity—spanning interdimensional portals, zero-point energy, time travel, and teleportation—can be daunting for newcomers. Unlike previous installments, which largely left players to navigate the story independently, Directed mode offers a more accessible experience.

Directed mode has already facilitated higher main quest completion rates than ever before. As Treyarch continues to update Black Ops 6, further adjustments to Zombies and Directed mode may yield even greater improvements in main quest statistics.