Call of Duty's most viewed video gets removed from YouTube, here's why

The Black Ops 6 gameplay reveal trailer has been removed from Call of Duty's official YouTube channel. Upon release, the clip amassed almost 50 million views in a span of 72 hours. It became the franchise's most viewed trailer in no time. Now, in May 2025, the video has disappeared from the channel.

The best explanation suggests that the trailer was removed due to expired music rights. This makes space for another game's trailer to reclaim the number one spot.

Black Ops 6 trailer disappears from Call of Duty's official YouTube channel

The Black Ops 6 trailer may have been removed because the music rights likely expired. This is a possible reason for the clip to disappear overnight. Keeping it up could have resulted in a copyright infringement, given that Call of Duty can no longer use it after the expiration of the license.

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As of May 2025, the Infinite Warfare official reveal trailer is the most popular video on the YouTube channel. It has a record 47 million views and was released on May 2, 2016, nearly 10 years ago.

It's impressive that the trailer still holds up and competes with Black Ops 6. Now, Banda MS' 141 Modern Warfare music video and the official Modern Warfare reveal trailer stand close to the top with 44 million and 41 million views, respectively.

Call of Duty has a history of coming up with exciting trailers for events, seasons, and characters. The franchise's most popular video being removed prompts important questions regarding the production of these clips.

Why were the rights to the music not retained for longer? Was there a disagreement between the parties? Was it always supposed to be this way? Activision has not addressed the removal of the video publicly, and if it never does, these questions will all be left to speculation.

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About the author

Prit is an observer, writer, and enthusiastic player of several FPS games. He's been playing games for far longer than he has been writing about them which gives him the unique perspective of a hardened player. He's also spent years writing content, novels, songs, and short stories to master his grip on the written word.

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Edited by Dinesh Renthlei