Activision Blizzard reported today that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is outselling last year’s Black Ops 4 title by a percentage in the “teens,” the company announced in its earnings report for the third quarter ended September 30.
Modern Warfare shipped on October 25, after the close of the quarter. But Activision earlier said that Infinity Ward’s latest Call of Duty game sold more than $600 million in its first three days of sales.
And Call of Duty Mobile launched October 1, and it reached more than 100 million downloads in its first month. Both games suggest that the Call of Duty franchise is alive and well despite challenges in its category from games such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Earlier, Activision said that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s $600 million in its first three days of sales compared favorably to past titles WWII and Black Ops 4, which both made more than $500 million in their opening weekends.
This year’s game is edgy with ultraviolent scenes in the single-player campaign that include torture, child combat, and shooting unarmed women. Fans have reacted positively to the realism of both the content and the graphics, as it brings the game closer to being more like a documentary of modern warfare.
But the game has faced protests in Russia because it depicts Russian soldiers as war criminals, and it has a fictionalized “Highway of Death” that is blamed on Russian bombers, even though there was an actual “Highway of Death” scene perpetrated by Americans in the Gulf War.
Activision’s Blizzard’s Modern Warfare is a crossplay title, with multiplayer playable across the consoles and PC, and the company said it saw console and PC unit activity on Battle.net reaching new highs.
Author: Dean Takahashi
Source: Venturebeat
