Best Selling Video Game Releases Ever
Update: Activision announced on December 21st, 2010 that Call of Duty: Black Ops has surpassed the $1 billion worldwide sales mark after just six weeks of availability.
Since its launch on November 9, 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops made an astounding $650 million in its first 5 days of availability. In contrast, Modern Warfare 2 made just $550 million during its first 5 days.
The question on everyone's mind now is whether the next Call of Duty, scheduled to launch in 2011, can maintain the level of success that the best selling series has enjoyed.
Here are the top 5 selling videos games of all time. For 2011, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, X-Men Destiny, and Transformersare all expected to be huge hits. Check back here to see if any of these upcoming releases break any new records.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
The seventh installment in the hugely popular first-person shooter Call Of Duty series broke record first-day sales when it first released on November 9, 2010. Black Ops made approximately $360 million, selling 5.6 million units in North America and the UK in 24 hours. This broke previous first-day sales by a $50 million margin and more money in one day than any movie ever has. Activision is reportedly going to use $1 million from Black Ops sales to help veterans find jobs.
"There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year's five-day global sales record of $550 million," Bobby Kotick, chief executive of Activision Blizzard, said in a statement.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a first-person shooter game published by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward, made $310 million from 4.7 million sales in North America and UK on it's first day when it was released in November of 2009. Activision turned over $1 million of its profits to establish a Call of Duty endowment fund to help real-life soldiers returning from war pursue careers in the private sector.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV which released April 2008, broke previous records with what was at the time a whopping $310 million on it's first day which blew away the previous first-day sales record by $140 million.
Halo: Reach
Microsoft's Halo: Reach pulled in approximately $200 million in first-day sales when it was first released in the US and Europe in September this year. It didn't beat GTA IV's impressive first-day earnings of $310 million in 2008 but it beat previous games in the franchise. making it the fastest-selling game Microsoft has ever released.
Halo 3
This version of the wildly popular Xbox 360 game, which was released in 2007 brought in $170 million in its first 24 hours of release.
