The Best-Selling Call Of Duty Titles

Gamers around the world are finally getting their hands on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare after months of eager anticipation. The latest entry in the long-running franchise is set to become another billion-dollar hit for Activision Inc. despite its arrival under controversial circumstances and calls to boycott the publisher’s products. This is the sixteenth Call of Duty title and it’s being billed a return to the series’ roots. Historical and futuristic themes have been ditched in favour of a grittier modern setting for the story and multiplayer.

In the run up to release, marketing for the game has proven slick and effective. Its reveal trailer received more than 33 million views and over half a million likes on YouTube. A beta released in September grew to become the largest in Call of Duty’s history in terms of users, hours played and peak concurrent players, according to Activision. That seems to bode well for a title that is likely to become the best-selling Call of Duty game ever released. Michael Pachter, managing director at Wedbush Securities, estimates that Modern Warfare will sell 20 million units by the end of 2019. Doug Creutz at brokerage Cowen expects sales to be even higher in Q4 – approximately 25 million.

So how would that compare to the best-selling Call of Duty games down through the years? Sales figures from VGChartz shows that Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 are tied in all-time Call of Duty sales with about 30.7 million units sold each as of October 25, 2019. Black Ops II came third with 29.59 million units sold followed by Ghosts (28.89 million) and Black Ops 3 (26.72 million).