Proving once again that people really enjoy shooting virtual representations of other people, Activision announces that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has surpassed $1 billion in retail sales.
According to Activision's internal estimates, the second Modern Warfare game from Infinity Ward sold $550 million in the first five days of release. Now, two months after the November 2009 release, sales have nearly doubled, freeing the publisher to fire off a celebratory $1 billion press release, complete with comment from CEO Bobby Kotick.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has exceeded our expectations and shattered theatrical box office and video game records," said Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "There are only a handful of entertainment properties that have ever reached the $1 billion mark, which illustrates the power of the Call of Duty franchise and mass appeal of this game."
Taking a closer look at the numbers, one could assume that more than half of the people interested in Modern Warfare 2 bought the game within the first five days of release. I'd guess there was a nice little spike around Christmas as well, between gifts and gift card redemptions. I know the game figured big in terms of eBay sales for the holiday season as well. Years of doing eBay Grey Market pieces have me craving day-to-day data so I can analyze sales patterns. There was a time I could simply appreciate a celebratory sales press release for what it was. I miss those days.


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