Call of Duty franchise breaks opening day sales records, again

Call of Duty: Black Ops screenshot

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 a 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.