Call of Duty tops 500 million copies sold as Black Ops 6 becomes biggest release in franchise history

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

During a Q2 earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Call of Duty 6: Black Ops was the biggest release in the history of the series. Here are the key metrics:

• Record for day one players and new Game Pass subscribers;
• Biggest Call of Duty game ever in terms of total numbers of players and hours played over the three-day opening weekend;
• Copies sold on PlayStation and Steam increased 60% year-over-year, compared to last year’s Modern Warfare III.

As in the case with MWIII, the company didn’t disclose the exact figures for Black Ops 6. We do know that Modern Warfare II, launched before Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, generated $800 million in its first three days and crossed the $1 billion mark in 10 days. At the time, it was an all-time franchise record, beating the previous one set by Black Ops II.

Activision Blizzard also told The Washington Post that the entire Call of Duty franchise has now sold over 500 million copies globally. Figures for each title remain undisclosed, but the new milestone makes CoD one of the biggest video game IPs of all time.

As can be seen from the top 5 below, Call of Duty is now behind only Nintendo’s Mario brand:

1. Mario — 879.41 million copies;
2. Call of Duty — 500 million copies;
3. Tetris — 495 million units (most are paid mobile downloads);
4. Pokémon — 480 million copies;
5. Grand Theft Auto — 430 million copies, including 200 million units of GTA V.

Launched on October 25, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 caused a huge player interest. The main Call of Duty HQ app peaked at over 300k concurrent users on Steam, beating previous premium installment in the series.

However, Black Ops 6’s launch physical sales in the UK were 10% lower than Modern Warfare III. As GamesIndustry.biz head Christopher Dring pointed out, “this is almost entirely due to a drop in sales on Xbox, which was inevitable with Game Pass.”