A cosmetic Call of Duty skin pack with a Los Angeles Thieves Call of Duty League (CDL) team theme has recently climbed near the top of Steam’s Top Sellers charts, which may have caught the attention of industry observers. Although the nearly all-black uniform can make players more difficult to recognise in Modern Warfare II or Warzone 2.0 contests, those surprisingly good sales are likely less related to team fandom and more related to this.
The LA Thieves pack, one of 12 themed skin packs created around the 12 teams in the CDL’s competitive league, went on sale earlier this week. The LA Thieves’ offering is nearly all black, save for a little red “LA” emblem on the chest, left arm, and back, whereas every other CDL skin pack on the market has bright colours and/or a striped shoulder harness for easy visibility.
In the darkest areas of some Call of Duty battlefields, players have already noticed how this attire may make them more difficult to see. In a playful tweet on Tuesday, Thieves player Sam Larew advised his followers to “make sure you guys head to the store and pick up the only skin that offers you a competitive advantage.”
On Wednesday morning, the fan site CharlieIntel noted that the pack was the 11th-best-selling item on Steam overall based on total sales. The $10 DLC is currently ahead of well-known titles like Marvel Snap and Final Fantasy XIV in the 18th spot on Steam’s US revenue charts.
It appears that LA Thieves sales aren’t just being driven by the need for generic CDL skins because the OpTic Texas pack, the second best-selling CDL skin, is presently ranked 125th on an enlarged list of Steam’s top sellers. One blogger for the esports website EarlyGame asserts, “I can guarantee you that these Team Packs aren’t typically extremely popular.” “The LA Thieves’ uniform, though, is nearly entirely black, and it’s becoming well-known for all the wrong reasons. All will be okay in the end…”
