Black Ops II, the latest title in the Call of Duty franchise, has just reached US$1bn in retail sales just 15 days after launch. This means it has reached the US$1bn point faster than Avatar, which reached the milestone within 17 days and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which got there in 17 days.
Within the first 24 hours of launch the game amassed US$500m in sales.
“Since Call of Duty was launched, cumulative franchise revenues from players around the world are greater than current worldwide box-office receipts to date for the top-10 grossing films of 2012 combined,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard .
“Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for Harry Potter and Star Wars, the two most successful movie franchises of all time.”
“Since the game’s launch, more than 150m hours have been logged online by gamers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation 3 consoles.
“Entertainment franchises that captivate audiences for as long as Call of Duty has, on the scale that Call of Duty has, are very rare things,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.
“And it takes a lot of brilliant people working across many different disciplines to make it happen. It is incredibly humbling and gratifying to be a part of.
“In order for Call of Duty to remain the entertainment juggernaut that it is, and keep our fans coming back for more, we need to continue to bring fresh ideas and new innovations to the table every time, while always staying true to what people fell in love with in the first place.
“That’s what we did with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and that’s what we intend to keep on doing. This is an incredible milestone for an incredible franchise, and I want to thank every passionate, talented, committed person on our team who made it happen,” Hirshberg said.
