The latest Call of Duty game, which came out just two days ago, has already raked in $360 million in revenue. That’s more than any first-day movie opening, video game launch, or any other entertainment release in history.
The announcement isn’t at all surprising and really just confirms what many were expecting would happen. The Call of Duty franchise is a runaway cash cow that can barely be contained.
Activision said it sold 5.6 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops in its first day. That beats the previous launch-day-record holder of 4.7 million units. Thee previous record holder was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the precursor to Black Ops.
Even though many spectators looked at Black Ops as a probably new record-setter, Activision itself had said it didn’t expect to surpass the amazing sales levels of Modern Warfare 2.
With more Best Buy midnight opening locations than any game before and a continuously growing Call of Duty following, it was certainly not a huge coup to see Black Ops as having the highest-grossing game launch of all time.
The game is also earning notoriety for being the first multi-platform 3D-enabled console game. In addition to adding to the PS3’s growing library of 3D games, Xbox 360 owners with a 3D TV and 3D glasses can also receive the same effect on their system. As such, it is also the first third-party console game for any system to incorporate full 3D resolution.
It will certainly be some time before any game manages to capture that much in launch sales again. We’ll probably have to wait for the next Call of Duty game.
