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Modern Warfare 3's opening week sets entertainment-industry records

FPS' first five days were the most profitable for anything, ever (almost)

Words: on November 17, 2011
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Activision is full of praise for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, saying the title's first five days broke records across all forms of entertainment media. In that time, the title's global earnings were $775 million, which is more than $100 million up on previous records (also held by Call of Duty). It's so much money that you could stack it in hundred dollar bills and hide behind it and no one could shoot you, even with Deep Impact equipped.

“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,” says Activision head Bobby Kotick. That means that Modern Warfare 3's obscenely successful $775m takings eclipse Black Ops' pornographically successful $650m earnings over the same period, which in turn dwarfed Modern Warfare 2's still-ludicrously successful $550m five-day haul. The game also racked up 7 million hours of multiplayer time in its first day. Yep, okay, them's some big-ass numbers.

Kotick points out that this brings the Call of Duty franchise's lifetime profits to something exceeding $6 billion, which means Call of Duty's earnings are higher than the GDP of many countries in which it's set. Meanwhile, EA's Battlefield 3 broke all internal records for opening-week launch earnings, which means that both games ended up doing very well, even with all of the bickering. Odds are this will be the last time you have to hear about the rivalry that took up much of 2011... until Modern Warfare 4 and Battlefield 4 are announced, anyway.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

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Platforms:

Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS3

Topics:

Modern Warfare, Sales

9 comments

  • HeavyTank - November 18, 2011 5:25 a.m.

    "More community complaints about the game's unoriginality?WHO CARES, the idiots buy it anyway!" That's what Kotick is thinking right now. That, and of course more ways to burn the rivers of money that are now flooding his house. Moral of the story: if you don't approve of the game/series, DON'T BUY IT instead of buying it THEN whining about how bad it is and regretting it bitterly until the next one comes out, and then just repeat the process all over again. /rant

  • spideralex90 - November 17, 2011 7:04 p.m.

    Surprise, surprise. I sincerely hope that either Activision tries to break the mold and actually make improvements to the next game or that it fails in the sales department.

  • Pwnz0r3d - November 17, 2011 7:03 p.m.

    You could put a caption in that photo that advertises "Transformers 4," and I would've believed it.

  • MetroidPrimeRib - November 17, 2011 4:51 p.m.

    Still sucks. Like Avatar.

  • gmcb2011 - November 17, 2011 4:24 p.m.

    I disagree with the last statement. Battlefield 4 and Modern Warfare 4 won't come out anywhere near the same time. Battlefield takes time for improvements. That's why I'm not one of those who are bored of "grey shooter 546." I didn't play 540 of them.

  • ThatGamerDude - November 17, 2011 4:12 p.m.

    I'm pretty sure there won't be a modern warfare 4. But modern warfare 46 is where it's at! That game is more redundant than the last 43! What, Battlefield 7? That'll never happen.

  • TURbo - November 17, 2011 4:02 p.m.

    Call of Duty gets to live for another year. If only EA released the first 5 day figures for Battlefield 3. They probably won't.

  • PanaMusica - November 17, 2011 3:51 p.m.

    Spec Ops survival is a ton of fun and it is cool to have new maps. The adjustments to gameplay are good. Got to level 50 in a couple days and I plan on prestiging once. But after playing MW3 for a week, I have pretty much gone back to BF3.

  • chrisat928 - November 17, 2011 3:42 p.m.

    *sigh* And what will Activision do with all that money? Nothing to make any of their games better.

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