Despite it being an “off-year” for Call of Duty, Treyarch’s COD: Blops outsold Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 by $100 million.
As we’ve reported of the last week, COD: Blops sold more first day copies, it broke records in the U.K. and now it has set a new entertainment industry record by earning $650 million in the first week it was out. The previous record-holder was MW2 with $550 million. Activision didn’t release exact unit figures but a quick estimate figures that around 10 million copies of COD: Blops were purchased worldwide. Retailers like GameStop and Amazon also reported that the videogame launch was the biggest that they’ve experienced, and that it bodes well for all videogame sales as we enter the holiday season.
Microsoft also released some astonishing figures for how many players were using Xbox Live to play Blops. Last week, 2.6 million unique players signed in to play multiplayer matches and over 5.9 million hours of multiplayer action were recorded.
Of course, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had a lot to brag about. “Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” Kotick said. “The title’s success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.”
But wait, he didn’t stop there! “The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard’s leadership role in online entertainment.”
I mean, with these numbers, he’s got a point. But does Kotick need to rub it in? Jeez…
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
