Modern Warfare 2 launch is the biggest in Call of Duty history

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In three days, MW2 broke MW3's five-day record set in 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
(Image credit: Activision)

Activision says that the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest in the series' history.

In a statement issued today (via BusinessWire), the developer said that the game "set a new franchise opening weekend record" across its first three days, besting even the five-day record set by Modern Warfare 3 in 2011. As well as raw sales figures, players set "player participation franchise records," besting numbers of unique players and hours played.

Call of Duty general manager Johanna Faries also stated that the launch was "the highest-grossing entertainment opening of the year," beating movie hits including Top Gun: Maverick and Doctor Strane in the Multiverse of Madness. Faries also promised "an unprecedented level of support for the Modern Warfare universe." Some of that will come from the launch of Warzone 2 later this month, as well as the Modern Warfare 2 Hardcore mode.

We already knew that Modern Warfare 2 was off to a good start, as the game had broken franchise records on PlayStation as well as Steam, which it returned to after several years as a Battle.Net exclusive PC release. That said, it's not been entirely smooth sailing, as Infinity Ward has been forced to disable ping systems and attachment tuning. Broadly, however, the reception has been pretty positive, and with the Warzone sequel on its way, Modern Warfare 2 is likely to get a significant boost in the coming weeks.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.