Activision has revealed today that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, released earlier this week, sold more than 6.5 million units in North America and the UK in its first 24 hours on sale, according to Chart-track and retail customer sell-through information.
In comparison, the game saw an estimated sell-through of $400 million in these regions. Figures for other regions have not yet been released.
This means that Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest day-one release for the Call of Duty series, following Black Ops which sold-through $360 million, and Modern Warfare 2 which saw sell-through of $310 million.
Bobby Kotick, CEO at Activision Blizzard, said, "We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories."
"Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row."
In the last few weeks, numerous analysts have estimated how many millions the game will have sold by the end of the year.
justins right. thats simple it. where is the problem? we dont have to carry around any letters, you know. BUT i was sure that some they said its only shipment numbers not actual sales...
Christian - it probably wouldn't be too difficult. In North America, a half-dozen retailers account for the vast majority of game sales. They'd be able to get Day 1 numbers with a few e-mails/phone calls to their contacts at each retailer.
It may be half a dozen retailers, but things are a little bit more complicated, then that.
First hose numbers are usually not reported to anybody, and definitely not to the manufacturer of the good you are selling, because this kills off an advantage you have over the manufacturer. The concrete knowledge how many units of a product you can sell, is something you can use, when you are negotiation over the purchase price. This is the reason, why research companies like NPD have their own deals with the retailers and you can be sure, they pay to get this information.
Second, games are sold and delivered all over the country with the help of distributors, who have their own reasons not to tell anybody exact sales data.
And last but not least, nobody has the time to report in such extensive way to a publisher, Activision is telling us they have numbers for day 1 sales 3 days after day one, simply impossible.
Activision historically quotes sell through, and not simply shipped. If Activision calls the various retailers asking for sales numbers, the retailers will tell them.
I am not aware of any event, when Activision quoted 3 days old sell through numbers (and I am not aware of anybody ever managed this for any sold game or console).
Christian, I appreciate the scrutiny to an extent, but Steven is right. This is typical of Activision and they did the same thing with Black Ops last year in the same time frame. http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=529609
It's not so hard to believe, and as they state, these are estimates based on internal and external data.
Ok, if they say these estimates are based on internal and external data, I believe it of course, because estimates, based on internal and external data are pretty much made up numbers.
As far as nobody knows how much internal data (aka wishful thinking) they are adding to their formula, they can state everything.
Doesn't change the fact, the the game is most probably the biggest release of the year and the odds are good that it opened bigger then Black Ops last year, but giving out exact numbers like this, 3 days after launch just makes me suspicious. Even more, as they don't only estimate the sold through units, but also an exact revenue, which would also mean, that they tracked the retail prices, the prices for the game vary very much, depending on where you buy it.
I'm not sure if it will continue. There are a ton of games that are still big AAA titles on the release this week even. Call of Duty has alot of competition. And I mean a hell of a lot of competition this year. Time will tell.
This came as no surprise to me that MW3 would break sale records. I said that it would and knew that it would outsell BF. As a former gaming retail Store Manager, I have seen the sale numbers for MW2 and it was crazy. Attending the midnight for these past releases, I have never seen a line as long for any title than MW3. Given the training and methods used to pre-ring up reserve customers to avoid lines at midnight, it still took a while to go through everyone and just hand out copies! Usually, we can get everyone in and out within 15-20 minutes, but for MW3, those guys took an hour! To me this is a bid deal because the store I went to isn't in a large town or anything like that. We even had multiple stores in the town with another GameStop literally across the street!
Well...enough of that. I see no games outselling MW3 on day 1 sales.
I'd be careful not to take the user scores on metacritic too seriously. Half of the time, the user hasn't even touched the game they are reviewing, yet they have the nerve to make an account, log in, and bash a game that they "just don't like". Don’t be surprised if a good portion of them are BF3 fans who haven’t played COD since MW2. While the professional reviews must always be taken with a grain of salt, they have much more credibility than metacritic's user scores.
Secondly, anyone who is "surprised" by Activision's lack of innovation in this release has done nothing more than prove that they live under a rock. There have been tons of videos and interviews since MW3's announcement that gave consumers more than enough information to know what to expect. They never said that they were going to scrap the formula and try something new. They repeatedly stated that they were improving upon an already successful design. They even admitted that they were still using the same engine, albeit an improved version of it. The bulk of its hardcore fanbase understood that, and was still happy because that's exactly what they wanted: a better Modern Warfare game. The professional reviewers are saying that Activision has accomplished that task.
Let the sales and DLC purchases tell the truth, not some shady, unreliable user scores.
These numbers are either vague estimates or shipped numbers.
First hose numbers are usually not reported to anybody, and definitely not to the manufacturer of the good you are selling, because this kills off an advantage you have over the manufacturer. The concrete knowledge how many units of a product you can sell, is something you can use, when you are negotiation over the purchase price. This is the reason, why research companies like NPD have their own deals with the retailers and you can be sure, they pay to get this information.
Second, games are sold and delivered all over the country with the help of distributors, who have their own reasons not to tell anybody exact sales data.
And last but not least, nobody has the time to report in such extensive way to a publisher, Activision is telling us they have numbers for day 1 sales 3 days after day one, simply impossible.
It's not so hard to believe, and as they state, these are estimates based on internal and external data.
As far as nobody knows how much internal data (aka wishful thinking) they are adding to their formula, they can state everything.
Doesn't change the fact, the the game is most probably the biggest release of the year and the odds are good that it opened bigger then Black Ops last year, but giving out exact numbers like this, 3 days after launch just makes me suspicious. Even more, as they don't only estimate the sold through units, but also an exact revenue, which would also mean, that they tracked the retail prices, the prices for the game vary very much, depending on where you buy it.
Well...enough of that. I see no games outselling MW3 on day 1 sales.
Is the Modern Warfare franchise losing its appeal? ie have consumers had enough and do they want something new altogether?
Secondly, anyone who is "surprised" by Activision's lack of innovation in this release has done nothing more than prove that they live under a rock. There have been tons of videos and interviews since MW3's announcement that gave consumers more than enough information to know what to expect. They never said that they were going to scrap the formula and try something new. They repeatedly stated that they were improving upon an already successful design. They even admitted that they were still using the same engine, albeit an improved version of it. The bulk of its hardcore fanbase understood that, and was still happy because that's exactly what they wanted: a better Modern Warfare game. The professional reviewers are saying that Activision has accomplished that task.
Let the sales and DLC purchases tell the truth, not some shady, unreliable user scores.