Call of Duty franchise breaks opening day sales records, again

Call of Duty: Black Ops has broken opening day sales records previously set by its predecessor Modern Warfare 2 by selling 5.6 million units in the US and UK alone, with gross earnings of $360 million dollars.

The previous record was set last year by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which grossed $310 in its first 24 hours. According to Thomas Tippl, CFO of the game’s publisher Activision, the latest release “represents a 16 percent increase over Modern Warfare 2, and sets yet again a new record for entertainment launches across any form of entertainment”.

He also stated:

“There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day sales records two years in a row, which represents the pop culture phenomenon that Call of Duty has become.”

Black Ops is set during the Cold War and allows the player to control two characters: special forces operative Alex Mason and CIA agent Jason Hudson. The game plot focuses around an experimental Soviet chemical weapon codenamed “Nova-6”, with locations such as Russia, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam incorporated into the game.

Our predictions on the success of Black Ops in previous article have been affirmed by this new data on first day sales, indicating that Black Ops is on schedule to become the biggest game of all time.