Record Breaker It's Call of Duty's world, people. We're just gaming in it.
Having already broken the day-one
sales record set by last year's Modern Warfare 2, the latest Call of Duty
game is showing no signs of slowing down. Activision today announced
Call of Duty: Black Ops has smashed the five-day entertainment sales mark by earning a whopping $650 million, topping -- who
else -- previous record-holder Modern Warfare 2 by $100 million over the same
time span.
So allow Activision CEO Bobby Kotick a little gloating.
"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," he 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."
He's kind of right. The Black Ops five-day sales mark isn't just bigger than other
video games -- it trounces box office, book and album sales, too.
Of course, a $10 film ticket or $20 hardcover is a fraction of the $60 gamers
throw down for a new Call of Duty game, so the comparison is a bit rigged.
That's not to downplay the game's outrageous success,
however. Alongside Activision's sales announcement, Microsoft revealed that Black
Ops set two Xbox Live marks as well. By the end of launch day, over 5.9 million
multiplayer hours were logged by over 2.6 million unique gamers -- both new
records.
