Video Game News: ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ Shatters Five-Day Sales Record

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CHICAGO – “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” is everything the video game universe predicted: a monster hit. “MW3” is now the highest selling movie, book, or video game of all time in a five day span. No, these numbers are not fake: the game grossed over $775 million in less than a week.

There has been no doubt that the “Call of Duty” franchise is a moneymaker; “Modern Warfare 2” and “Black Ops” both set records at the time for biggest opening day release and biggest five-day release, but “Modern Warfare 3” has shown that the game is gaining more and more popularity as the record totals continue to rise. The series has exceeded itself by $100 million twice now. “Modern Warfare 2” made $550 million in its first five days, “Black Ops” topped that with $650 million, and now “Modern Warfare 3” sets the bar to $775 million. At this rate, “Modern Warfare 4” or the “Call of Duty” game that follows it will make $1 billion in a week.

Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, announced the news earlier today: “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 Kotick. “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. Online play for Modern Warfare 3is 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.”

Other records that were announced today said more than seven million multiplayer hours were logged playing “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” by the end of launch day, more than 3.3 million unique gamers played the game on the first day, and the game set the concurrent players record with 3.3 million gamers playing “MW3” simultaneously.

By TIM MARTENS Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com tim@hollywoodchicago.com