Activision Blizzard has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has set a new record for the entertainment industry. The game grossed more than $775 million worldwide in its first five days on sale. The previous record holder was Call of Duty: Black Ops which grossed $650 million and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with $550 million two years ago. The Call of Duty franchise has also exceeded $6 billion worldwide.
"With $775 million of sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its first five days, Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across all forms of entertainment," said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard. "Life-to-date retail sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded $6 billion worldwide, which makes Call of Duty one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world. We expect continued sales momentum, as reviews and audience enthusiasm suggest that this is the best Call of Duty game that we have ever made."
The game has also set record levels for number of people playing the game online. There were more than 3.3 million gamers playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox Live, which is up from 2.6 million gamers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game also set a record for most number of gamers at the same time on the PlayStation Network.
"Online play for Modern Warfare 3 is at record levels and we continue to see high online play for both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 , which ranked as the #2 and #4 top-played Xbox LIVE games for the week of November 7, according to Major Nelson," said Kotick.
According to VGChartz, Call Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sold more than 12 million units in its opening week. The Xbox 360 version sold more than seven million units, while the PlayStation 3 version sold over 4.8 million. The Wii and PC versions split the remaining 500,000.
Source: Activision Blizzard