That’s right, folks. It’s been on the cards, and now Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the most eagerly-awaited release since, well, Blacks Ops, has shattered the unprecedented sales numbers of its predecessor, having sold 6-and-a-half million units in its first 24 hours – and that’s just in the US and UK.
For the third year in a row, the Call of Duty franchise has really raised the bar. Sell-through statisticians have estimated that the game has amassed $400 million in sales on day one, and with the weekend fast approaching, it would be foolish to bet against it surpassing the billion-dollar mark within its first week.
The incredible sales figures of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 make it not only the fastest selling game in history, but also the fastest selling entertainment product of all time – with publishers Activision stating that it surpassed global first-day theatrical box office numbers for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings – inarguably two of the biggest film franchises of all time.
Millions of fans eagerly queued in the middle of the night to grab a copy from one of the 13,000-odd worldwide outlets offering a midnight launch. We suspect many employers and school teachers alike would have noticed a few missing faces during the day – that’s if they weren’t themselves gripped by COD Fever!
The launch also help Microsoft achieve its largest recorded number of simultaneous games on Xbox LIVE, with peaks surpassing anything previously seen in its 9-year history.
Although there have been a few cases of server overloads – which should be expected – we should take this somewhat rare opportunity to applaud both Sony and Microsoft on handling of their respective online gaming services. Once upon a time, a higher-than-expected burden on its connected services would have meant significant downtime – taking some of the shine from the release. But few have complained, and most gamers have been able to pwn some n00bs without so much as a hiccup.
Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing showed his gratitude to those dedicated fans by stating, "most of all, I would like to thank our millions of passionate fans worldwide. We made this game for you."
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(Source PR NewsWire)
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