New data confirms Call of Duty fans are the most toxic in all of gaming

A new study looked into just how positive, or negative, different games’ communities are. Analyzing social media data, the findings revealed that Call of Duty fans are the most toxic around.

There are a lot of Call of Duty titles out there. From Warzone, Vanguard, and CoD Mobile players to the remaining Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare fans, there is no shortage of people devoted to the FPS franchise.

As it turns out, that player base isn’t just committed to clicking heads and editing loadouts. They also appear to be the most dedicated, across all gaming communities, to… toxicity.

A new study from Wordtips dove into the social media data across thousands of tweets and hundreds of followers, for a number of gaming and entertainment communities. This led to a clear conclusion: CoD fans are more negative than any other game’s.

Call of Duty fans are the most toxic in gaming world

While it’s unclear precisely which games were considered for this study, the methodology notes that they analyzed “a long list of fanbases.” That work resulted in Call of Duty’s community being named the most negative video game fanbase online.

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With 184 negative words per 1,000 words tweeted, CoD’s fans are apparently about 11.5% more toxic than the second-most negative gaming group (Mortal Kombat). 

This data might not be too surprising, as the franchise’s death comms and trash talk are well-documented. Challenging people to a 1v1, even over random online disputes, is a popular element of CoD culture. Warzone bugs have even accidentally punished players for their toxicity in the past.

What may be surprising, though, is that CoD’s fanbase wasn’t the most toxic group studied. According to the research, Rihanna’s fans take the top spot – edging out the gamers ever-so-slightly with 186 negative words per 1,000.