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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the biggest entertainment launch of the year – that’s the headline from Activision’s long-awaited sales press release.
Some nine days on from the release of the game, Activision has revealed only that the shooter has beaten the sales of any other game, movie, album or book released in 2014.
No unit or sales revenue data is revealed, although Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year”.
The publisher adds that the game is the highest selling digital launch ever according to Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and internal Activision estimates”
We do know from previous data that the week one UK sales were up on last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, but that it was only the fifth biggest COD launch ever in the UK.
We also know, however, that Ghosts saw big drops compared to previous iterations, despite selling $1bn worth of stock into retail worldwide on day one.
"Since Activision created the Call of Duty franchise in 2003, franchise revenues have exceeded $10bn in sales worldwide, far exceeding box office receipts for such household movie franchises as Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man and Avengers, combined," Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
"Advanced Warfare is the biggest entertainment launch of 2014 in terms of revenue, surpassing all movie, music and book launches this year."
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg added: "We poured our hearts into making Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare an epic ride, and we are pleased with the performance.
"Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous. We believe Advanced Warfare will be the most successful game of the year and we thank our fans for making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year."
