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UPDATE: It’s been noted that Black Ops 2’s $500m revenue is attributed to global sales. Modern Warfare 3’s $400m figure, meanwhile, was derived from North American and UK territories only, meaning that the two figures are not directly comparable.
The question remains: Did Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 sell more units than Modern Warfare 3 within its first 24 hours on sale?
ORIGINAL: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 generated more than $500 million in revenue during the first 24 hours of going on sale.
The figure puts Black Ops 2’s day one revenue ahead of both the original Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and pushes total Call of Duty sales beyond box office takings for the entire Harry Potter and Star Wars movie franchises.
“With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row,” said Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick.
Modern Warfare 3 was estimated to have sold 6.5m units and pulled in $400m worth of revenue within its first day on sale.
But despite posting Black Ops 2’s earnings, Activision has yet to announce how many units of the game were actually sold.
“Call of Duty has become more than a product people buy, it’s a brand people buy into,” added Activision CEO, Eric Hirshberg. “And every November we do more than just the launch of a game, we kick off an annual, unofficial but worldwide phenomenon called the Call of Duty season.
“I want to thank our incredible team at Treyarch for making an amazing game, everyone at Activision for making this brand a force of nature and our retail partners for their unprecedented support of this franchise. But most importantly I want to thank our millions of fans for their continued support and loyalty and for making us better every day.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 launched on Tuesday on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. A Wii U version is due to go on sale on November 30.
Blockbuster said that it had sold over 10,000 copies of the game within the first five minutes of it going on sale.
Source: Press release
