A few weeks prior to the launch of Activisions' new hit title "Call of Duty: Ghosts" the company called out Rockstar Games and told it not to get too comfortable with all of the sales records it both broke and set with the release of "Grand Theft Auto V." Now that the new "Call of Duty" has hit store shelves, the company is on its way.
According to IGN, Activision has announced that it has sold more than $1 billion worth of copies of "Call of Duty: Ghosts" for the games retail worldwide launch. Surprisingly the developer has decided against disclosing how much money was generated by sales of the game in its first 24 hours after launch. Instead the company merely revealed how much stock was sold to retailers ahead of the launch. It doesn't confer any insight into actual sales to consumers but it's still something.
"Grand Theft Auto V" made $800 million from sales in its first day. While we know that "Call of Duty Ghosts'" launch was a success, we don't yet know if it has made good on its promise to dethrone Rockstar's record setting sales yet. Activision has yet to release a comparable figure for Ghosts yet. It's possible this is because they don't want to until they know for sure.
Another indication of successful sales has come from Xbox Live declaring it the number one game by setting a "new high watermark" for average play time, topping both "Black Ops 2" and "Modern Warfare 3" during "the same time period."
"Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation. More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year. Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it's launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular," said Activison Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
It's possible that Activision is simply waiting to disclose sales information until after it has the final figures from next-generation console sales.
