Call Of Duty: Black Ops Hits $1 Billion In Sales

Call of Duty: Black Ops has passed the $1 billion sales milestone, according to Activision's own estimates -- and it seems to have done so a little bit faster than Modern Warfare 2. The publisher said Infinity Ward's 2009 Modern Warfare 2 released on November 10, and Activision announced the game had hit $1 billion on January 13, 2010; Treyarch's Black Ops released November 9, and the announcement comes before the turn of the year, suggesting it might have hit the impressive landmark a little bit faster. With Infinity Ward the higher-reputed studio, its name more familiar to gamers, analysts widely expected that Black Ops would see high sales numbers initially, but ultimately be unable to earn higher revenue than its record-shattering predecessor. Black Ops' first five-days' total of $650 million is confirmed to be $100 million more than Modern Warfare 2's, however. According to Microsoft stats delivered alongside today's announcement, players have logged more than 600 million collective hours of playtime on Black Ops, over half of which is spent online against or with friends. "In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and "Avatar" have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "This is a tribute to the global appeal of the Call of Duty franchise, the exceptional talent at Treyarch and the hundreds of extraordinary people across our many Call of Duty studios including Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer that work tirelessly on the franchise." Of course, when looking at the revenue from a Call of Duty game, DLC is an essential piece of the puzzle, too. Black Ops has yet to release one, but the first downloadable map pack, First Strike, is slated to hit Xbox Live first in February. Modern Warfare 2's Stimulus Package sold 2.5 million units at $15 each in its first week of availability, and First Strike will have the same price. "Call of Duty continues to rewrite not just the record books, but also the rules of interactive entertainment," says Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "Even more remarkable than the number of units sold is the number of hours people are playing the game together online which are unprecedented. Call of Duty is more than a game, it's a true community."