Call Of Duty Franchise Tops $10 Billion Sales To Date, Advanced Warfare Biggest Entertainment Launch Of 2014
Activision came out with guns-a-blazing today by shooting off numbers and claims, such as that its highly successful Call of Duty franchise has now grossed over $10 billion in sales since it launched in 2003, making it a far bigger entertainment franchise than box office hits like Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man, and Avengers. Even if you combine ticket sales from every movie in each of those franchises, it still wouldn't trump CoD's $10 billion in worldwide sales.
Impressive, to say the least. Unfortunately, Activision also shot off a blank when claiming that it's most recent title in the series, Advanced Warfare, is the biggest entertainment launch of 2014 in terms of revenue, surpassing all movie, music, and book launches this year.
We're not doubting that's true, but when making such a claim, it's customary to include a few details. You know, little things like actual sales data or other numbers to support your claim. We're old fashioned like that, but Activision decided against providing such details, instead pointing out that based on internal estimates, gamers played more than 370 million online matches during Advanced Warfare's first week of release and leveled up over 200 million times in online multiplayer mode.
"We poured our hearts into making Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare an epic ride, and we are pleased with the performance," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous. We believe Advanced Warfare will be the most successful game of the year and we thank our fans for making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year."
The lack of any sales figures is an odd omission, and perhaps a sign that the series, while still hugely popular, is on a comparative decline. Consider that Activision was equally vague when Ghosts launched, and prior to that, the publisher had no problem revealing sales data, such as Black Ops 2 grossing $500 million in a single day and Modern Warfare 3 pulling in $400 during its first 24 hours of sales.
"Biggest entertainment launch of the year is based on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare retail and digital sell-through, and reported movie, music, and book gross sales, each for the first week following initial launch, according to publicly-available data, retail customer sell-through information, and internal Activision estimates. Sales increase of Advanced Warfare versus last year is based on sell-through in week after initial launch," Activision added.
According to Activision, Advanced Warfare is also the highest-selling digital launch in console history.
Impressive, to say the least. Unfortunately, Activision also shot off a blank when claiming that it's most recent title in the series, Advanced Warfare, is the biggest entertainment launch of 2014 in terms of revenue, surpassing all movie, music, and book launches this year.
We're not doubting that's true, but when making such a claim, it's customary to include a few details. You know, little things like actual sales data or other numbers to support your claim. We're old fashioned like that, but Activision decided against providing such details, instead pointing out that based on internal estimates, gamers played more than 370 million online matches during Advanced Warfare's first week of release and leveled up over 200 million times in online multiplayer mode.
"We poured our hearts into making Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare an epic ride, and we are pleased with the performance," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous. We believe Advanced Warfare will be the most successful game of the year and we thank our fans for making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year."
The lack of any sales figures is an odd omission, and perhaps a sign that the series, while still hugely popular, is on a comparative decline. Consider that Activision was equally vague when Ghosts launched, and prior to that, the publisher had no problem revealing sales data, such as Black Ops 2 grossing $500 million in a single day and Modern Warfare 3 pulling in $400 during its first 24 hours of sales.
"Biggest entertainment launch of the year is based on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare retail and digital sell-through, and reported movie, music, and book gross sales, each for the first week following initial launch, according to publicly-available data, retail customer sell-through information, and internal Activision estimates. Sales increase of Advanced Warfare versus last year is based on sell-through in week after initial launch," Activision added.
According to Activision, Advanced Warfare is also the highest-selling digital launch in console history.
