Black Ops claims 5-day sales record

As was revealed by MCV this morning, Activision has confirmed that Black Ops has not just shattered Call of Duty records – it’s also re-written the entertainment launch books.

The publisher has revealed that the game sold an astonishing $650m of stock in its first five days on the market. By comparison, Modern Warfare 2 managed $550m in the same time period.

On the (clearly incorrect) assumption that all copies were sold at the full US RRP of $59.99, that would equate to around 10.8m copies.

This number is said to better any previous game, movie or book launch.

By the end of its first day on sale over 5.9m multiplayer hours were logged on the game with more than 2.6m unique players logging in.

The game also enjoyed the biggest launch ever seen on Amazon or at High Street chain GameStop.

Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick stated.

The title’s success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media. The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard’s leadership role in online entertainment.”

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg added: There are many reasons for the success of Black Ops, but first and foremost is the fact that our team at Treyarch delivered a truly awesome game, and in the process have established themselves as one of the most talented developers in the world.

There are millions of people all over the world engaging in this community. It’s our job to keep them coming back for more.”

Black Ops sold 1.4m copies in its first 24 hours in the UK and made $360 across in the US and UK on day one.