Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has the best Metacritic score of any game in the franchise in 15 years, but Activision is being noticeably reserved about its sales performance following the shooter’s first full launch weekend. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the franchise has now crossed $40 billion in lifetime revenue, a big milestone that doesn’t tell us anything about how much Microsoft’s biggest blockbuster of 2026 is actually selling.
The campaign has been praised, including by us, and early impressions around DMZ and multiplayer have trended positive. But MW4 is posting weaker concurrent numbers than Black Ops 6 on Steam, despite no longer being available day-one on Game Pass this year. Concurrent numbers on one storefront don’t tell the whole story, but Activision has yet to share any hard data of its own, let alone any new records this launch has set. That’s in line with how the company spoke about Black Ops 7‘s launch in 2025, and a far cry from the way it used to crow about beating Hollywood blockbusters’ first weekend box office sales in total revenue.
The best-selling Call of Duty game ever is reportedly Black Ops 3, which sold 43 million copies. Activision announced that entry’s opening weekend results as the biggest entertainment launch of the year with $550 million in total sales. 2019’s Modern Warfare is the second best-selling entry at 41 million copies. Activision confirmed it was the biggest Call of Duty launch of the PS4/Xbox One console generation with a launch weekend that “more than doubled the box office opening of Joker.”
Compare that to Sharma’s tweet about MW4, which called it “one of the most celebrated Call of Duty games in its 24-year history, and now $40B in lifetime franchise revenue.” It continued, “An incredible milestone. Congrats to the Activision team. And to the players, thank you for being with us.” Microsoft’s latest earnings call is on October 28. We’ll see if the company provides a more concrete signal about the game’s performance then. In the meantime, here’s how Activision has talked about every Call of Duty launch since 2009:
Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment with estimated sell-through sales of $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone in the first 24 hours, according to internal Activision estimates. Modern Warfare 2 was released on Tuesday, November 10th, to worldwide fanfare across the globe, including over 10,000 retail outlets in the U.S. alone which held midnight openings to meet consumer demand. In its first day, the blockbuster title sold through approximately 4.7 million copies in just North America and the United Kingdom, according to internal Activision estimates.
Black Ops
Treyarch’s highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops has become the biggest entertainment launch ever with an estimated sell-through of approximately $360 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone in the first 24 hours of its release, as compared to last year’s estimated day-one sell-through of $310 million for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in North America and the United Kingdom, according to internal Activision estimates.
Call of Duty: Black Ops, marks the second year in a row that the Call of Duty franchise has set day one launch records across all forms of entertainment. In its first day on November 9, the blockbuster title sold through approximately 5.6 million copies in North America and the United Kingdom, as compared to 4.7 million copies for last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, according to internal Activision estimates.
Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 crossed the $1 billion mark in sales since its launch on November 8, 2011, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information. Highlighting the trend of interactive entertainment gaining a greater hold of audiences worldwide, the game achieved this milestone in just 16 days, eclipsing the record set in 2009 by the feature film “Avatar,” which reached the $1 billion milestone in 17 days.
Black Ops 2
The highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops II has achieved an estimated sell-through of more than $500 million worldwide in the first 24 hours of its release, according to Chart-Track, retail customer sell-through information and internal company estimates.
“With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. “Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star Wars,’ the two most successful movie franchises of all time. Given the challenged macro-economic environment, we remain cautious about the balance of 2012 and 2013.”
Ghosts
The company sold more than $1 billion of Call of Duty: Ghosts into retail stores worldwide as of day one.
“Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year. Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it’s launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular.”
Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the biggest entertainment launch of the year, besting not only all other video games, but also the biggest movies, music and books launched in 2014.
“Since Activision created the Call of Duty franchise in 2003, franchise revenues have exceeded $10 billion in sales worldwide, far exceeding box office receipts for such household movie franchises as Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man and Avengers, combined,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “Advanced Warfare is the biggest entertainment launch of 2014 in terms of revenue, surpassing all movie, music and book launches this year.”
Black Ops 3
In its first three days, the blockbuster title exceeded $550 million in sell-through worldwide, according to Activision estimates. The opening weekend haul is the biggest entertainment launch of 2015, including theatrical box office, music and book launches. Engagement per player also set a new record for the Call of Duty franchise. Additionally, fans played more than 75 million hours online in its opening three days.
Infinite Warfare
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is the #1 console video game in the U.S., based on year-to-date revenues from physical unit sales. The title, which launched on November 4th, is also the #1 top selling console title for the month of November, based on revenue from physical unit sales. Additionally, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise is the #1 console video game franchise in North America for the 8th consecutive year, based on year-to-date revenue from physical unit sales.
WWII
Activision’s Call of Duty: WWII has surpassed more than $500 million in sell-through worldwide in its first three days of release, topping popular theatrical box office openings Thor: Ragnarok and Wonder Woman combined, according to company estimates.
On PlayStation 4, Call of Duty: WWII set a record as the best-selling digital full game by units sold on its first day of availability. Overall unit sales at launch doubled year-over-year globally.
Black Ops 4
Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has sold more than $500 million in sell-through worldwide in its first three days of release as the total number of players climbed from last year. Through its first three days of release, Black Ops 4 set a new Call of Duty franchise record for most combined players, average hours per player and total number of hours played, on current generation consoles. The combined number of Black Ops 4 players across its three modes of play during those first three days tops both last year’s Call of Duty: WWII, as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (single player, multiplayer and zombies), respectively, for the same period of time.
Modern Warfare (2019)
Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had more than $600 million in sell-through worldwide in its first three days of release. The title has sold more units in its first three days than any other Call of Duty game sold in its first three days in this console generation, and is the top-selling new premium game release of 2019. Modern Warfare also established a new record as the #1 top-selling digital opening in Activision history. With its blockbuster launch, in its first three days of release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare more than doubled the box office opening of Joker.
Black Ops Cold War
Friday’s release of Black Ops Cold War set a new record as the highest first day digital sales worldwide in franchise history. Thank you to Call of Duty players everywhere. Launch is just the start This new title is releasing into the largest and most engaged Call of Duty community ever. We look forward to delivering an incredible amount of free post launch content, events and support for the entire community as Black Ops Cold War evolves just as we did last year following the release of Modern Warfare.
Vanguard
Starting today the highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Vanguard is available worldwide. Vanguard delivers an unparalleled depth of Call of Duty® content across a gripping single-player story, 20 multiplayer maps on day one, an all-new Zombies experience that further explores existing story canon. Vanguard also features the deepest integration yet with Warzone™, which will launch the new Warzone Pacific, including the new map “Caldera” on December 2nd.
Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has become the #1 top-selling opening weekend ever in the franchise, delivering more than $800 million worldwide in sell-through following the first three days from its release on October 28, 2022. The blockbuster opening tops any of the biggest worldwide box office openings of 2022, surpassing ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ and ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ worldwide box office openings combined.
Modern Warfare II also set a new franchise opening weekend record as the #1 top-selling Call of Duty digital opening through its first three days. Developed by Infinity Ward, the release of Modern Warfare II represents a bold new direction for the entertainment franchise, which will continue with the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 on November 16.
Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
Y’all grinded more than a full plate on Thanksgiving holiday. MW3 players racked up the most hours per player for a new premium Call of Duty release during the holiday weekend since 2019. Now let’s beat it, Shipment gets added to the playlist this Thursday.
Black Ops 6
Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day. And unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60 percent year-over-year.
Black Ops 7
Across opening weekend, we’ve seen a great response to the quality and depth of gameplay in Black Ops 7.
Modern Warfare 4
One of the most celebrated Call of Duty games in its 24-year history, and now $40B in lifetime franchise revenue. An incredible milestone. Congrats to the Activision team. And to the players, thank you for being with us.