The newest Call of Duty is off to a faster start than many in the video game industry had thought and appears to have reached $1 billion in sales faster than any game in history.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II crossed more than $1 billion in retail sales by Nov. 27, its 15th day on sale, publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. announced last week.
That’s a day faster than last year’s installment Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 reached the same mark.
It also marks the first time Activision has announced sales figures for Black Ops II that exceed Modern Warfare 3.
When the Santa Monica, Calif., game publisher announced first-day sales on a worldwide basis, instead of for North America and Great Britain as it had previously done, many in the game industry assumed it did not have apples-to-apples data that showed the new game performing better.
Analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee estimated that the new game would sell 10 percent to 15 percent less than Modern Warfare 3.
But it appears that even if Black Ops II didn’t do better on its first day, it has picked up sales momentum a bit faster than its predecessor.
Analyst Evan Wilson at Pacific Crest Securities estimated that Black Ops II will sell 27.5 million units in the current fiscal quarter, up from 27 million for Modern Warfare 3.