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  1. Games
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  4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3 sells 6.5 million in first 24 hours, sets Xbox Live records

News
By Hollander Cooper published 11 November 2011

Fills Activision's coffers with $400 million

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Shocking absolutely no one, Activision has revealed their recently released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sold really, really well. It broke records and made Activision a lot of money, and a lot of people are playing it on the internet.

Oh, you wanted details? Well then why didn't you say so? CVG is reporting that Modern Warfare 3 sold 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours in the US and UK, breaking all-time entertainment launch records even with Battlefield 3 presenting it with the biggest competition in the series' history. That adds up to over $400 million in sales, which is an absolutely absurd amount of money for anything to make. Seriously, pulling in that much money in one day is nothing short of mind-blowing, especially considering how many were under the impression that Call of Duty players were starting to suffer fatigue over the series' sameness. Apparently that isn't even remotely the case.

"We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories," said Bobby Kotick, the well-paid CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. "Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings," two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time," he said while drinking out of a chalice made of gold and sitting on a chair that was also made of gold.

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Microsoft has chimed in as well, claiming that Modern Warfare 3 "set a new peak concurrency record," dethroning whatever had the spot before (we're guessing another Call of Duty game).

So, how long until we hear about the next game in the series from Treyarch? What era are we thinking, more Black Ops '60s? Or maybe jumping into the '80s? What would you like to see?

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Hollander Cooper
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Former Features Editor at GamesRadar+

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade.

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