IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Grosses $550 Million in 5 Days

Posted November 18, 2009 by James Brightman

It had already been revealed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 generated $310 million in the U.S. and U.K. on day one. Today Activision Blizzard announced that the game has yielded $550 million in its first five days on sale, according to the company's own internal estimates.

“In just five days of sell through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon,” said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard.  “The title’s success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather engage in other forms of media.”

An exact units total was not provided, but Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian said, "We estimate that the sell-through to date implies 8.5-9M units sold through in week one, towards the higher end of our 8-9M estimate. We also believe that the title is on track to meet or exceed our 4Q unit shipment estimate of 12.5M units."

Activision said that Modern Warfare 2's incredible launch broke all previous first-day and five-day entertainment totals, whether at the box office, for books or video game sell-through records. The publisher is basing this claim on data from Guinness  World Records and BoxOfficeMojo.com. 

Here are the entertainment records that Activision says it broke:

• The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)
• The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)
• The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)
• The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)
• The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)
• The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

As we previously reported, the game also had a huge impact on Microsoft's Xbox Live. Activision said that more than 5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Modern Warfare 2 on the first day, with more than 2.2 million unique gamers setting a new one-day record for Xbox Live on November 10. Over 11 million achievements were unlocked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day as well.

Activision Blizzard is certainly flying high right now, but the company knows that the economy and retail environment are still challenging. The company noted that it "remains cautious about the U.S. and global economy as well as other variables that can affect industry fundamentals and our own performance, including consumer spending which remains a significant concern."

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.