Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is not only the best entertainment launch with more than $400 million in revenue in its first 24 hours, but it is also the most successful 5 day release with $775 million grossed. The game is way ahead of sales of last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and on track to be the best-selling video game of all time — a title currently held by Black Ops.
This is the third straight year where the Call of Duty franchise has set a sales record. Call of Duty: Black Ops netted $650 million in the first five days of release in 2010 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 grossed $550 million in 2009. “With $775 million of sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its first five days, Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” said Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard.
MW3 is also setting online game playing records. Microsoft said more than 7 million hours were logged for multiplayer Modern Warfare 3 by the end of the first day, up 19 percent from 5.9 million hours for COD: Black Ops from 2010. More than 3.3 million unique gamers played Modern Warfare 3 on Nov. 8 — the day the game was released. That number is up from 2.6 million a year earlier.
