Activision believes that Call of Duty: Black Ops II generated over $500 million in its first 24 hours on release worldwide. 16,000 stores opened at midnight for release of the game.
“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,” offered Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “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.”
“Call of Duty has become more than a product people buy, it’s a brand people buy into,” added Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “And every November we do more than just the launch of a game, we kick off an annual, unofficial but worldwide phenomenon called the Call of Duty season. I want to thank our incredible team at Treyarch for making an amazing game, everyone at Activision for making this brand a force of nature and our retail partners for their unprecedented support of this franchise. But most importantly I want to thank our millions of fans for their continued support and loyalty and for making us better every day.”
