Destiny sold ‘$500m’ worth of units into stores on day one, is biggest new IP ever

Activision hasn’t revealed Destiny’s day one sales but has confirmed that the game is a record-breaker.

The publisher says its sold $500m worth of stock into retail for day one – meaning that if every copy sells the game will have recouped its famous $500m development budget within 24 hours.

It also says that Destiny has become the biggest new IP launch in video games history and is the biggest ever digital day one launch.

However, the number suggests that it also ranks among the best ever launches, new IP or otherwise, with big-hitter Call of Duty: Black Ops II ‘selling through’ (as in, actually selling to customers) the same amount back in 2012.

The most successful launch ever was Grand Theft Auto V, which sold 11.21m units to customers in its first 24 hours, generating revenue of $800m.

Based on extraordinary audience demand, retail and first party orders worldwide have exceeded $500 million for Destiny,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said.

This industry milestone marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world. The success of Destiny, along with the recent introduction of Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone, is further validation of our unique capabilities to create great entertainment franchises from the ground up.”

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg added: Since the beginning, we’ve been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off. But not many people believed we’d be able to say it did so on day one.

Destiny is officially the biggest new franchise launch in our industry’s history. It’s also the highest-selling day one digital console release in history. We have more confidence than ever that Destiny will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation and Activision’s next billion dollar brand. Most importantly, it’s just a great game which we can’t stop playing. A big thanks to our incredibly talented team and partners who helped make this happen; most importantly, our partners at Bungie.”