'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3' Crosses $1 Billion Sales Mark

NEW YORK - Activision Blizzard said Monday that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has crossed the $1 billion mark in sales after 16 days, eclipsing a record set in 2009 by the film release Avatar, which reached the $1 billion milestone in 17 days.

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The latest edition of the Call of Duty franchise launched on Nov. 8 with a one-day sales record of $400 million in North America and the U.K. The gaming giant's Activision Publishing arm cited sales data from Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information.

With more than 30 million gamers, the Call of Duty community now exceeds the combined populations of the cities of New York, London, Tokyo, Paris and Madrid, the firm said.

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"Engagement of our Call of Duty audience continues to rise around the world" said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "Call of Duty as an entertainment franchise has made an indelible mark on popular culture and its broad and continued success is further validation that audiences increasingly value interactive experiences over passive experiences."   

He said that the gaming series is among that "rarified group of sustained franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the National Football League (NFL) that attract or engage tens of millions of people every year or every new release."

Activision also said that the Call of Duty Elite online service has registered more than six million players since the game's launch with over 1 million premium subscriptions sold to date. By comparison, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Xbox Live each reached the 1 million paid subscriber milestone after about a year, it highlighted.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai