A lot of people went out to buy Black Ops on release day. Imagine that!
Activision is calling Call of Duty: Black Ops' launch the "biggest entertainment launch" ever recorded. The publisher is reporting that Treyarch's shooter generated around $360 million worth of sales in the US and the UK alone in its first 24 hours on store shelves, which beats Modern Warfare 2's alleged record-breaking sell-through in the same regions, during the same frame, of $310 million in 2009.
In terms of games sold, Activision estimates that Black Ops sold 5.6 million in this period. MW2, for comparison's sake, sold a measly 4.7 million copies.
And you better believe Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had something to say about this crazy news. "There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year's five-day global sales record of $550 million," Kotick said in a statement. Later, he said that Activision will support Black Ops with DLC on a more frequent basis than it has previously with other titles.
Crazy numbers, right? I was floored to see 3.9 million people on the Xbox 360 version alone last night, so I'm not doubting what Activision is saying. The game is popular, and popular in an explosive we've-never-seen-numbers-like-these-before kind of way. But I wonder just how many units will be sold within, say, the first month? Will we have an even crazier story about Black Ops' sales this December?
