Modern Warfare 3 to beat Black Ops sales record

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will generate around $1.1 billion in sales during its first six weeks on sale, Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter has predicted.

Both in units sold and revenue, Pachter believes Modern Warfare 3 will outclass last year’s record Breaking Black Ops.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will likely be the year’s top-selling game. If MW3 receives strong review scores (85 or above on Metacritic.com), it should at least match predecessor Black Ops’ sales (over 25 million units) due to the network effect, with compression of sales into 2011 likely,” he stated in an investor note.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, Pachter added that he expects Modern Warfare 3 to set a new entertainment record: “I see compression of sales for virtually every game, would bet that they are 10% higher over the same time frame, so $1.1 billion in the first six weeks.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be released November 8, though PC gamers won’t benefit from Elite.

If you’re a little rusty on what’s happened so far in the Modern Warfare franchise, check out our comprehensive story so far feature.

Six week figures are interesting, but everyone’s eyes will be on first week and day one figures; Black Ops made a huge $650 million in just five days, up from the $550 generated by Modern Warfare 2 a year earlier. With the Hardened Edition looking an attractive option – thanks to the bundled Elite subscription – we could see similar units sold overall, but a substantial increase in first week revenue thanks to an increase in the average spend by gamers.