Modern Warfare 2 breaks all records

By Mike Bantick
Thursday, 19 November 2009 07:29

Entertainment

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has set new benchmarks for the entertainment industry by becoming the biggest launch ever.  Move over Harry Potter, Batman and Grand Theft Auto IV, there is a new king.

With the threat of a sales boycott hanging over its head, the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was always going to be interesting.

Despite strong pre-sales, the news that rocked the PC gaming community – the lack of a dedicated server option – was enough to cause Activision execs some consternation.  Would PC sales of the game be drastically down?  Would the console platform sales be enough to warrant the games hype level?

Well it seems those quaking Activision execs can now order a new diving board for their money vault swimming pools.  COD:MW2 has broken just about every entertainment record there is to break.

Activision/Blizzard today announced: The biggest entertainment launch in history set a new worldwide estimated five-day sell-through record of approximately US$550 million, according to internal Activision estimates.

Modern Warfare 2's launch beat all previous first-and five-day entertainment industry box office, book and video game sell-through records*:

*    The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (US$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, US$500 million)

*    The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight (US$66.4 million)

*    The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows (US$220 million)

*    The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, US$310 million)

Modern Warfare 2's blast radius also extends to Xbox LIVE, in which the blockbuster title's epic release established the following new standards, according to Microsoft:

*         More than 5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day alone.

*         More than 2.2 million unique gamers played Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 in one day on November 10th. A new one-day record for Xbox LIVE.

*         More than 11 million achievements were unlocked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day.

"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, Inc.  "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."

Interestingly Activision tempered the boasts above with the following cautionary statement: “Despite the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision Blizzard 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.”