Modern Warfare 3 Continues the Commercial Killstreak

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 set a new day-one sales record, making this the third straight installment in the series to do so.

 

The Infinity Ward-developed military shooter earned more than $400 million in sales from North America and the United Kingdom. This number of course shatters the records set by both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2, which set records of $360 million and $310 million, respectively.

 

More than 13,000 stores worldwide held midnight launch openings for millions of fans Tuesday. According to Microsoft, users set a new record for Xbox Live peak concurrency within the first 48 hours of launch.

 

Resulting in a record number of fools cooked.

 

"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," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. He added that Call of Duty’s total life-to-date sales have trumped box office sales of franchises like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings.

 

The eighth installment in the smash hit franchise, Modern Warfare 3 follows the continuing exploits of Soap MacTavish and Capt. Price in their pursuit of Russian Ultranationalist leader Vladimir Makarov. On the run after events from Modern Warfare 2, MacTavish and Price must complete their mission to eliminate Makarov.

 

“Call of Duty is more than a game. It's become a major part of the pop cultural landscape. It is a game that core enthusiasts love, but that also consistently draws new people into the medium,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.“I would like to thank our incredible teams at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games for making a brilliant game. But most of all, I would like to thank our millions of passionate fans worldwide. We made this game for you."

 

Activision also announced today that it donated $3 million to the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit, public-benefit corporation formed in 2009 by Kotick. The Call of Duty Endowment is committed to providing employment and job training for veterans.

 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is available now for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and DS.

 

 

Aaron Kinney, NoobFeed
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