Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hits $1 Billion Milestone

[Apoptosis]

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hits $1 Billion Milestone in Just 16 Days

Only Entertainment Property To Eclipse Avatar's 17 Day $1 Billion Record

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare™ 3 crossed the $1 billion mark in sales since its launch on November 8, 2011, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information. Highlighting the trend of interactive entertainment gaining a greater hold of audiences worldwide, the game achieved this milestone in just 16 days, eclipsing the record set in 2009 by the feature film "Avatar," which reached the $1 billion milestone in 17 days.

While 2011 box office revenue is on the decline — down 4 percent this year at $9.4 billion, compared with $9.8 billion in 2010 -- the number of people purchasing and participating in gaming is on the rise, with no sign of slowing.(1) With more than 30 million gamers, the Call of Duty community now exceeds the combined populations of the cities of New York, London, Tokyo, Paris and Madrid.

"Engagement of our Call of Duty audience continues to rise around the world" said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "Call of Duty® as an entertainment franchise has made an indelible mark on popular culture and its broad and continued success is further validation that audiences increasingly value interactive experiences over passive experiences.

Call of Duty is now amongst that rarified group of sustained franchises like "Star Wars", "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings" and the National Football League (NFL) that attract or engage tens of millions of people every year or every new release.

Our Call of Duty Elite is one of the fastest growing online services ever with more than six million players registered since its launch November 8, 2011 and over one million premium subscriptions sold to date. By comparison, the premium subscription services of Netflix, Hulu Plus, Sirius XM and Xbox® LIVE®, did not reach one million paid subscribers until almost one year after launch.

"Call of Duty has become that rare entertainment franchise that transcends its own genre. Core gamers love it, as our stellar reviews show. But every year, new people are drawn into Call of Duty," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "And while the franchise continues to set records, our fans still seem to want more, demonstrated by our record setting start on Call of Duty Elite. We are committed to helping everyone connect, compete and improve their game, Call of Duty style."



About Activision Publishing, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision Publishing is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard which maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com.

[DeusEx]

Sad day for gamers and the industry.

[XstollieX]

Wow, I'm glad that I saw Avatar and they got my money a couple of times. But am also glad that I didn't waste my bucks on MW3

[JMMD]

Damn, that is a lot of cash. Good for them.

[KnightRid]

Wow, amazing how many people want to run around as fast as they can with their finger on the trigger

I want to buy MW3 but I wont until it hits a good $30 or maybe $40 sale point. I just want it for the single player campaign and could care less about online play since it is all the same....run and shoot....or cheat and win LOL

[Skippman]

My Co-Worker and I were talking about MW3 vs BF3. Personally I think BF3 is the best of the current generation of combat sims. The scales is bigger, the classes more flexable, and the "feel" far more realisitc to the chaos of battle. MW3 is just Counterstrike 3.0. Jump in and kill people then die, repeat. As fast as possible. There's none of that tension of running halfway across the map, hidding, only to get sniped at the last minute.

[omegadoom13]

I was in the MW3 corner before the latest BF3 update. Now, I'm really enjoying BF3. No more freezes, lag issue has been fixed. Before the update, I would play 2 to 3 rounds and then my game would freeze right before the start of a new round. So annoying as hell.

[Skippman]

I was in the MW3 corner before the latest BF3 update. Now, I'm really enjoying BF3. No more freezes, lag issue has been fixed. Before the update, I would play 2 to 3 rounds and then my game would freeze right before the start of a new round. So annoying as hell.

My only complaint against BF3 is the new Game Lobby. I don't like the web interface as much as I liked the "in game" one before. But maybe I'm just being biased that way.


I always got the feeling COD:MW was popular for the same reason Halo is popular. It's an easy to get into console shooter, where BF2/3 really need a computer to get the full effect. Since there's more console systems the games are tremendously poplular. BF2 was the best large scale warfare sim until BF3.