Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Crosses $1 Billion in Sell-through in 10 Days

Posted on by Nox

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II crosses $1 billion in sell-through in 10 days, setting a new record for the franchise, as described in a press release on Activision Blizzard’s investor blog. The figure represents worldwide sales and marks a new “sales speedrun” milestone for future franchise entries to strive to beat.

Franchise Records

Modern Warfare II (not to be confused with Modern Warfare 2, the 2009 game that shares, in essence, the same name) released on October 28th and players have, so far, cumulatively spent 200+ million hours in the game, spread over 1 billion matches.

The previous record for crossing the $1 billion sell-through line was held by Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which released in 2012. It took Black Ops II 15 days to hit the same milestone achieved by Modern Warfare II in 10.

Additionally, Modern Warfare II also has two more records to boast about:

  • It is the #1 top selling opening in franchise history, topping $800 million following its first three days of release.
  • It is the highest grossing entertainment opening of 2022 so far.

Entertainment Openings in Games

The term ‘entertainment opening’ encompasses films and music openings as well. If gaming openings are calculated the same as movie openings (adding up the gross between the first day of release and the first Sunday), Modern Warfare II has grosses $800 million in its first three days (as listed above) followed by $200 million more in the next seven days.

To put things into perspective, when Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018, it got the record for the biggest opening weekend in entertainment history at $725 million. Grand Theft Auto V earned $800 million in its first day and $1 billion in its first three days (for reference, it launched on a Tuesday).

In terms of speed, GTA V still reigns supreme, but Modern Warfare II’s feat is not to be taken lightly. It now takes third place for biggest video game launch, just slightly behind Cyberpunk 2077 in second. The list of top 10 fastest-selling games in a three-week window since launch now contains five Call of Duty games.

A whole billion dollars marks a resounding success for Activision Blizzard, and the game isn’t ready to slow down yet, with Warzone 2.0 launching on November 16. Have you played the game yet? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.