Call of Duty: Black Ops II generates $500 million in 24 hours

[Shawn Knight]

Love it or hate it, the Call of Duty franchise is one hell of a money-making machine. Black Ops II, the latest release in the series, launched earlier this week on a number of different platforms. Some wondered if the title would be able to eclipse last year’s record-setting Modern Warfare 3 in terms of first day sales.

The numbers are now in and according to Treyarch and Activision, there’s a new record holder among us. Black Ops II generated $500 million in worldwide sales during the first day. For comparison, Halo 4 raked in $220 million in the first 24 hours earlier this month.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said he believes Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row.

If you recall, Modern Warfare 3 brought in $400 million in sales on launch day which equated to 6.5 million copies. The companies have yet to release an exact number count for Black Ops II but it’s surely higher than last year’s mark.

GameStop announced they sold more than a million copies of the game on launch day while Amazon said the game became their most pre-ordered title of all time.

There were more than 16,000 midnight launches at retail stores around the globe, attended by millions of gamers anxious to get their hands on the new title. It was even a trending topic in 23 cities on Twitter according to Activision. Five day sales figures for Black Ops II are expected in the near future.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/50839-call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-generates-500-million-in-24-hours.html

 

[TomSEA]

That is absolutely insane! That's 1/4 of what the movie Titanic made in total box office sales...

 

[psycros]

That is absolutely insane! That's 1/4 of what the movie Titanic made in total box office sales...

Yeah, but that was back when new games cost $30-40. And Titanic has made many times its box office in rentals and disc purchases. A game only gets purchased once unless someone really needs it on multiple platforms, or picks up a GOTY edition later.

 

[howzz1854]

This is like McDonalds... still counting how many burgers they sold.

how a decade old game that's been re-skined to death still sells is beyond me. Treyarch can spin it all they want and talk about what feature they've "ripped" or "replace", the truth is it's still based on the same old IW engine that's based on the decade old Id Tech 3 engine that was originally used, yes! Quake III.

but fat cats will always be fat... it'll eat until there's no more food to eat.

 

[howzz1854]

That is absolutely insane! That's 1/4 of what the movie Titanic made in total box office sales...

Yeah, but that was back when new games cost $30-40. And Titanic has made many times its box office in rentals and disc purchases. A game only gets purchased once unless someone really needs it on multiple platforms, or picks up a GOTY edition later.

don't forget that once you adjust Titanic's sales figure for inflation after almost 20 years.

 

[Guest]

The report is a bit inaccurate. MW3 had its 400 million bucks in North America and UK alone. This new release brought home 500 million world wide. And Activision did not claim this to be the biggest entertainment launch ever, just this year. So I'm betting this was no record after all...

 

[Guest]

Too bad the state of the online multiplayer modes are a mess! I highly doubt the developer really did not know there would be serious issues before game was released. Now even Sony is involved to figure out why there are so many connection issues....as if they learned nothing from all the previous MW/Black Ops games. What a bunch of jack asses....

 

[jesseeads]

So with all this money flowing in.. how about some dedicated servers.. the lag is horrible!

 

[Adhmuz]

The popularity of the CoD franchise has done nothing but astonish me these last few years, how people can be fooled into buying the same game year after year after year and buying map packs for said games just to replace it before its even a year old. I asked a friend who pre ordered it why, and explained to him how the franchise has yet to innovate anything even in the slightest way. My friends answer was simply, "But it has zombies". I soon realized out argument was going no where and stopped before either of us were too upset. Which is sad when you stop to think people get upset over such a trivial installment in a lack luster franchise. Perhaps the issue is the lack of interest when it comes to shooting zombies over and over again. This fantasy played itself out long ago for me and the idea is a tad boring even. Does any one have anything substantial to add to why Black Ops 2 should be purchased? (Great title btw, adding a 2, real clever) The lack of creative imagination these days is just getting frustrating, and strongly feel games from 10 years ago where actually better games fundamentally then the crap being pumped out today. Almost like the attitude has changed from; what will make our game sell, to; our games sell no matter what so why bother.

 

[Cota]

Nothing new in here, move along.

 

[soldier1969]

All this tells me is there are alot of ***** 12 yr olds out there with their vastly outdated consoles and eat this stuff up with every mention of COD anything. Wouldnt touch any more COD games with a 10 ft stick since Modern Warfare 1.... PC gaming ftw.

 

[NTAPRO]

All this tells me is there are alot of ***** 12 yr olds out there with their vastly outdated consoles and eat this stuff up with every mention of COD anything. Wouldnt touch any more COD games with a 10 ft stick since Modern Warfare 1.... PC gaming ftw.

The popularity of the CoD franchise has done nothing but astonish me these last few years, how people can be fooled into buying the same game year after year after year and buying map packs for said games just to replace it before its even a year old. I asked a friend who pre ordered it why, and explained to him how the franchise has yet to innovate anything even in the slightest way. My friends answer was simply, "But it has zombies". I soon realized out argument was going no where and stopped before either of us were too upset. Which is sad when you stop to think people get upset over such a trivial installment in a lack luster franchise. Perhaps the issue is the lack of interest when it comes to shooting zombies over and over again. This fantasy played itself out long ago for me and the idea is a tad boring even. Does any one have anything substantial to add to why Black Ops 2 should be purchased? (Great title btw, adding a 2, real clever) The lack of creative imagination these days is just getting frustrating, and strongly feel games from 10 years ago where actually better games fundamentally then the crap being pumped out today. Almost like the attitude has changed from; what will make our game sell, to; our games sell no matter what so why bother.

Maybe they just get it because they want to

All this tells me is there are alot of ***** 12 yr olds out there with their vastly outdated consoles and eat this stuff up with every mention of COD anything. Wouldnt touch any more COD games with a 10 ft stick since Modern Warfare 1.... PC gaming ftw.

But it's also on pc like other cod games. What it could tell you is that parents no longer care about the rating of the video games. U jelly?

 

[Ranger12]

"For comparison, Halo 4 raked in $220 million in the first 24 hours earlier this month."

I wouldn't say that's an accurate, fair, or helpful comparison seeing as Halo 4 was released on Xbox only.
I do agree the graphics are sub-par for a pc release and look silly on the xbox compared to Halo 4. However, I imagine that is due to the yearly release cycle as well as the fact that it's being released nearly simultaneously on 4 different platforms. In my opinion the COD franchise has become another Apple. You can sell anything to anybody and make them believe they got a good deal if marketing is on their A-game.

 

[Guest]

More than happy with my copy, keeps getting better with each release.

 

[Guest]

GTA 5.Spring 2013.And these records will be blown into water.

 

[bugejakurt]

Waste of money... It's better if that money is invested to higher the standard of third world countries...

 

[TitoBXNY]

People enjoy CoD that's why it's still popular year after year. Haters will say that it sucks and curse Activision over and over. Guess What? While you hate, they keep making money. Regardless of how some people feel, this is the greatest franchise in video games. They are the NY Yankees of video games.

 

[Lionvibez]

People enjoy CoD that's why it's still popular year after year. Haters will say that it sucks and curse Activision over and over. Guess What? While you hate, they keep making money. Regardless of how some people feel, this is the greatest franchise in video games. They are the NY Yankees of video games.

Great franchise in video games???

REally?

You got low standards eh?

 

[Guest]

Call of Duty is for little kids...

Same kids who don't know what to do with their lives, so they sit idle trying to be somebody. Same kids who can't do much else... so they hack-up COD games.

"Look Mommy... high score again...."

"Can I get that hug now....."


Call of Duty is a rehashed marketing spree.. it offer nothing modern or new to their own franchise. The reason it even sold 1 game is Marketing. Not because the game itself is any good. Matter-of-fact, CoD has zero reddeming qualities and you will not see people wanting to play it 5 years after release like BF2, BF Vietnam, etc..

Bcuz COD franchise is not about the gamer... but about the punch drunk CEO's who feed off the inccesant kids who watch commercials & are unable to dicern cut-sceens from reality.

 

[SantistaUSA]

Some people just love to hate, I've bought the game and I am enjoying a lot, sure there are things that I don't like it, I don't care for the campaign either, but I do have a lot of fun with the multiplayer.

There are TONS of games out there, if you don't like the COD franchise and don't buy the game, why are you so upset? Is not like it cost you any money, or maybe it did ;-) lol

I'm 34, and game on xbox360, PS3 and PC. Cheers!

 

[TitoBXNY]

Great franchise in video games???

REally?

You got low standards eh?

Low standards, what are you talking about? I don't even play the game, you can't deny it's successful. If somethings exceeds the value of what you think it's worth, guess what, it's worth it. So your basically saying that those gamers that spent 500 million dollars in 24 hours have low standards, you can't be serious.

 

[BMfan]

Call of Duty is for little kids...

Same kids who don't know what to do with their lives, so they sit idle trying to be somebody. Same kids who can't do much else... so they hack-up COD games.

"Look Mommy... high score again...."

"Can I get that hug now....."


Call of Duty is a rehashed marketing spree.. it offer nothing modern or new to their own franchise. The reason it even sold 1 game is Marketing. Not because the game itself is any good. Matter-of-fact, CoD has zero reddeming qualities and you will not see people wanting to play it 5 years after release like BF2, BF Vietnam, etc..

Bcuz COD franchise is not about the gamer... but about the punch drunk CEO's who feed off the inccesant kids who watch commercials & are unable to dicern cut-sceens from reality.

Damn, you must be such an intuitive person.
Here I am 32 years old sitting in my chair playing COD Black ops I(single player) and asking for a hug everytime I finish a stage not because I enjoy the game.

As to your comment no one plays them after 5 years then I"m glad that I'm the only person in the whole of the 6 billion + people in this world that still enjoys COD World at War and MW 1.

 

[Lionvibez]

Low standards, what are you talking about? I don't even play the game, you can't deny it's successful. If somethings exceeds the value of what you think it's worth, guess what, it's worth it. So your basically saying that those gamers that spent 500 million dollars in 24 hours have low standards, you can't be serious.

O yes I'm very serious my friend.

Just because the games sells doesn't mean its the greatest franchise ever.

And anyone that believes that based on sales numbers has low standards in video games!

 

[veLa]

While I enjoy CoD, I must admit it's the same game released each year. For example, the level design is always the same. How many times can I fight a different war in the same unspecified middle eastern desert? The airplane level in CoD4 was almost identical to the one in MW3. They add very little, in fact MW2 and MW3 even have the same reload animations for many guns. The best way to put it is, the last 4-5 CoD's could have all been DLC or $20 expansion packs since it is effectively the same game with minimal tweaks every 12 months. It's a huge money making machine that's for sure. The worst part of it is that when a new one comes out everybody instantly stops playing the old one. It's not like Counter-Strike where each version will have a cult following forever.

 

[spencer]

Cod... a money making machine for fat cats. And the best game in the world ever COD pros-AKA(ignorant Tweens that suck at every other game) are rejoicing because on halo ARMA or battlefield they get there asses handed to them.