Call Of Duty: Black Ops Hits $1 Billion

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hit the insane billion-dollar mark and although some analysts were skeptical, Activision was always confident this year's Black Ops would also hit the lofty plateau.

And so it has. Activision has announced that Treyarch's popular shooter has dragged in $1 billion in revenue since the game hit store shelves on November 9. Only one other product in the entertainment world has managed to hit a billion dollars that quickly; James Cameron's blockbuster film, "Avatar." In the first 24 hours, 5.6 million gamers worldwide picked up the latest CoD entry, which translated to $360 million in sales. After the first five days, the number reached $650 million; all such early stats were actually better than MW2. And of course, as you might expect, people haven't bought the game to let it sit and gather dust: Activision claims that 600 million hours have been logged online thus far. The numbers are huge, as expected, and Activision will try to do it again at the end of 2011, when the newest Call of Duty will drop. Evidently, it's Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 3, which has another legitimate shot at that billion bucks.

We've also heard about a few other CoD titles that may or may not be huge but at this rate, just about anything with "Call of Duty" in the title is bound to hit big.

Related Game(s): Call of Duty: Black Ops

Tags: call of duty black ops, cod black ops, black ops sales

12/21/2010 2:21:38 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (76 posts)

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BikerSaint
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 2:41:31 PM
Reply

Oh great, now Kotex will get to raid & cash out tons more of Anti-vision's stock options.

3 up, 3 down

DemonNeno
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:05:20 PM

Don't give the general public so much credit. Most gamers are far less informed than us fellows at psxe. Unless something actually impresses the public as much as the cod franchise, the only thing that'll get toppled in their offices are yesteryears ego.

Either way, that's an INCREDIBLE amount of cash for software that is merely a game!

0 up, 0 down

TheCrazyMerc
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:00:40 PM

You know whats worse than CoD, Justin Beiber XD!

5 up, 1 down

maxpontiac
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 2:56:37 PM
Reply

I have to wonder how these numbers would have been impacted if COD Black Ops was reviewed under the same microscope as GT5..

4 up, 4 down

Inception
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:02:27 PM

Polyphony would make a great COD

2 up, 2 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:24:23 PM

Not necessarily.

3 up, 2 down

NoOneSpecial
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:59:57 PM

Different developers have different strong suits. For example, I couldn't ever imagine how Naughty Dog might make a Guitar Hero-esque game. (theoretically, of course)

1 up, 0 down

Qubex
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:41:43 PM

It would take decades though Inception!

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

1 up, 1 down

maxpontiac
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 7:49:58 AM

Think about it you COD players...

The PS3 online feature is not where it should be, the 360 version has been said to be superior to the PS3 version, and yet...

The review didn't change, nor was it DISSECTED like GT5.

1 up, 2 down

manofchao5
Thursday, December 23, 2010 @ 5:56:23 PM

@MrGrinch
you kidding me, naughty dog would never be dumb enough to waste all their great talent on a game as simple as guitar hero
they would spend their time on a fps, racing, hell anything is better than a rock simulation game!

0 up, 0 down

CH1N00K
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:02:22 PM
Reply

Which company was it that said that they were going to come up with a title that would top this?

I still haven't played a COD yet, but even that is a high benchmark to top....

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:43:58 PM

Dude, all seriously mediocre games compared to their console exclusive counterparts. They hardly even look next gen. I think the sales are due to multiplayer, they make the multiplayer really fun.

0 up, 0 down

Godslim
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:44:47 PM

have to disagree man cod4 did set the standard for fps games

4 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:22:48 PM

Godslim, i popped MW1 in the other day just to see what all he hubub was about then, the freakin game looks like a PS2 game in comparison to even most multiplats now. Its a terrible looking game and the game play, while i had fun with it then, is nothing compared to Killzone 2. I can put Killzone 2 in and still have fun, I ended up turning MW1 off after 2 minutes.

3 up, 5 down

maxpontiac
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:27:56 PM

Jawknee -

You wouldn't expect that if you looked at the reviews..

4 up, 3 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:02:20 PM

Yea I don't get. Of course I'm exaggerating about it looking like a PS2 game but compared to a lot of games from 2009, 2010 and what's coming in 2011, it looks last gen. The gameplay was a lot of fun when it was the only PS3 game I had but I can't get into it anymore. Maybe I'm just over it. Moved on.

1 up, 0 down

Godslim
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:18:48 PM

tbf tho man it did come out in 2007 that was like 3 years ago now and yeh aggree about the graphics now they do show their age i went back to it and thought the same but gameplay is still brilliant and the mp is still very fun

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:49:46 PM

Fair enough but Drakes Fortune makes it look like a last gen game and it too is from 2007. :)

2 up, 0 down

booze925
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:57:37 PM

jawk, that game released in 2007. its graphics were amazing at the time.

2 up, 0 down

Qubex
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 11:35:59 PM

Godslim / Booze - I have to agree CoD4 - which I own - did set the bar back then. I think even now it is still a good play to be honest.

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

2 up, 0 down

Godslim
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 6:56:04 AM

oh yeh gotta aggree i graphics wise uncharted was way better back then tho when cod4 came out it did back all other fps game coming out at the time just look back e.g rainbow six vegas

0 up, 0 down

Spore_777
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:06:46 PM
Reply

Esp when u consider that polyphony spent $60 million to make GT5.
But i s'pose taste is subjective.

2 up, 1 down

Riku994
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:12:29 PM
Reply

It's stuff like this that makes Japenese developers think that twitch gaming is the way to go.

7 up, 4 down

SvenMD
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:16:21 PM

Sadly that's the truth....

2 up, 2 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:44:46 PM

The sad truth. JRPG we hardly knew ye.

1 up, 2 down

Maiq The Liar
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:57:54 PM

I prefer western.

3 up, 0 down

FM23
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:00:02 PM

No...this has nothing to do with twitch gameing as AC isn't a twitch fest. People like FPS because they have longterm value due to multiplayer and the campaign has infinite replay value. Call of Duty satisfies these needs even if it isn't artistic or groundbreaking anymore. Japanese just don't make interesting games that much compared to other countries.

3 up, 1 down

Killa Tequilla
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:16:35 PM
Reply

So how much money per game sold do the developers get?

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:45:17 PM

Devs=$1, Kotex=$59

1 up, 1 down

Qubex
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:42:41 PM

Lol World!

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:42:05 PM
Reply

Aaaaaaand that's the end of the gaming industry for the rest of us.

6 up, 3 down

Clamedeus
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:49:04 PM

We still have Sony. :D

3 up, 0 down

Imagi
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 3:59:12 PM
Reply

Kotex, ass that he is, delivers the goods, just a shame it's only to his shareholders.

0 up, 2 down

Amazingskillz
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:07:52 PM
Reply

$1 Billion is very, very impressive. Hat's off to Activision, they've managed to put out back to back blockbuster smash hits. In the face of losing half their talent to Respawn Ent. People may put down Kotick and talk trash about the company but the truth of the matter is they are kicking ass and taking names in the video game world right now. Those who argue that the games MW2 & BlackOps are mediocre maybe need to reevaluate whats appealing in a game. Activision obviously has a formula that works to the tune of billions, while other company's can barely put out a product that sells $200Million. People also seem to be underestimating reflex gaming (multiplayer). Right now activision is top dawg. Give em their props and move on.

5 up, 3 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:23:34 PM
Reply

Shame, the gaming industry is going down the road of the music industry though at a faster pace.

2 up, 4 down

MadPowerBomber
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 3:39:31 AM

Not comparable.

2 up, 1 down

Amazingskillz
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:27:06 PM
Reply

The question needs to be asked, why hasn't Battlefied Bad Company, Medal of Honor, Mag Etc. even come close to the success of COD? People are laying out their hard earned $60 to do this.

3 up, 2 down

Deadman
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:35:55 PM

Because COD is accessible ie. it's an easier game to play. In one match of COD you rank up sometimes three ranks esp. at the start. They give you points for everything. It is a pick up and play game.

Games like MAG, Battlefield, etc. sell well but they are more for the hardcore. You can play for hours, days even and still not hit the next rank in those. Your points are earned, the COD fans often cry about the difficulty of those games.

5 up, 2 down

Maiq The Liar
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:00:14 PM

Deadman, I respect you.

1 up, 1 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:42:38 PM

Truth Deadman, CoD is one of those shooters I can pick up and it feels like I never stopped playing it. Bad Company 2 and Killzone 2 on the other hand are two games it takes me awhile to get used to again if I step away from them for too long.

1 up, 1 down

booze925
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:02:42 PM

i bought it, and ive seen the light. its mw2.5, nothing else.
it just doesn't feel finished. no more treyarch games from now on. rent only

2 up, 1 down

Alienange
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 12:10:07 AM

You're absolutely right Deadman. Both MAG and Battlefield games are excessively long grinds.

1 up, 2 down

Godslim
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 6:58:22 AM

yeh i actually brought bad company 2 a couple of days ago and love it :)
but black ops really is mw2.5

0 up, 1 down

shootu
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 @ 12:19:50 AM

@ Amazingskillz You said "Battlefied Bad Company, Medal of Honor, Mag Etc. even come close to the success of COD?"

Thats because the control is complete junk and the maps suck. But The publishers of COD need to get off there lazy asses and fix all of the screw ups. An update is waaaaaaayy past due.

1 up, 0 down

KNG201
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 4:52:30 PM
Reply

I wish we didnt know how much a game makes.

1 up, 2 down

Highlander
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:10:35 PM
Reply

Some people (parents for example) consider video games to be time stealers because they consume time that could be spent working or studying or being with family or friends. I know people who are so unbalanced that they have skipped work to play games like CoD, and have certainly called in sick after an all night game session. So there is a definite impact in the workplace.

What I am wondering is, with CoD Black Ops hitting $1billion in revenue and Addictivision talking about 600 million hours of game time (that's about 100 million hours a week, so in the course of a year, that's 5.2 billion hours, or nearly 217 million DAYS, or 650 million working days (8Hr day). That's 2/3 of a *billion* working days are potentially swallowed up by Call of Duty Black Hol...er...I mean...Ops.

Isn't math fun?

So, does this mean that Call of Duty Black Ops, and the Call of Duty franchise in general is officially the biggest money and time waster in the history of humanity?

8 up, 8 down

SixSpeedKing
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:35:52 PM

Haha That's excellent! Yes I'd agree with that fully.

1 up, 0 down

PAKINIPS
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:09:17 PM

5 people disagree with you....but why?

1 up, 0 down

booze925
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:08:11 PM

while im questioning why you seriously went through all that math to come 2 a conclusion you already knew, u are not wrong, but u r not right.
ur wrong because there are 2 time wasters bigger than CoD. warcraft and al gore.
nuf said

1 up, 0 down

TheShadow
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:41:06 PM

Cannot agree with you any more then 100% because then that is just not possible.

0 up, 1 down

shootu
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 @ 12:26:46 AM

@ TheHighlander and @ booze925 one word that waste more time then all of that "Facebook"...

1 up, 0 down

Danny007
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:22:38 PM
Reply

Honestly, just my opinion, but all that money was wasted.

2 up, 0 down

STAY3R
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 5:28:29 PM
Reply

black ops was kinda good, liked it better than halo reach. For me it's a 9/10.
But yeah it's true that this franchise has become the madden or fifa of shooter world, activision should stop milking COD, atleast fora a while.

5 up, 1 down

SixSpeedKing
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:39:11 PM

Ha! Yes they should but A) It's a company which is about making money and this franchise rakes in a crapload of money for them and B) They are greedy.

Put that together and I don't think they will stop making these games for a long time, unless they stop making a lot of money from them.

0 up, 1 down

FM23
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:03:48 PM
Reply

Black Ops deserves this and doesn't. I found MW2 to be way better than Black Ops and I didn't even care for MW2 like that. It's just odd that people keep buying this crap when their are so many better games on the market, but advertising goes a long way with America. I use to be one of those people who only bought what was popular like clothes, shoes and what not, and games fell into the same category. So if I still had that mindset, well Call of Duty would be the only game I would purchase as well.

2 up, 0 down

Maiq The Liar
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:09:39 PM

That, and the unfortunate fact that they get addicted.

1 up, 0 down

Maiq The Liar
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:07:42 PM
Reply

I think that the basic fact is' is that there are far more casual gamers out there than hardcore. Call of duty appeals to the more casual gamer as its multiplayer is fun and easy to understand, plus that fact that FPS are very popular now. Due to this, its popularity has boomed over the years, and thus more profit for Bobby. Its just a sad story that the more hardcore (and better) FPS suffer.

2 up, 1 down

Geobaldi
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:31:02 PM
Reply

And not a penny of that was from me I'm proud to say.

4 up, 1 down

TheShadow
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:43:26 PM

Good for you, your helping this iindustry out.
I for one bought MW2.....WASTED 60 dollars.... oh wait I was STUPID enough to buy both map packs too.

AKA, I fail :(, but hey I learned my lesson :)

0 up, 1 down

Oxvial
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:38:57 PM
Reply

I feel proud to say, I didn't contribute to that.

2 up, 1 down

Snaaaake
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 6:59:28 PM
Reply

If only a fraction of that billion would go into game development.........

2 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:02:13 PM

LOL! Seriously, they could spend 60 million like Polyphony did and make a much better Call of Duty and still have tons of money left over. Yet...they won't. Most of it will go to shareholders and Boobies pockets.

4 up, 0 down

Oxvial
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:03:39 PM

Pretty much , I wouldn't feel surprised if the next CoD looks the same and hit another billion.

0 up, 0 down

PorkChopGamer
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:42:52 PM

You don't need $60 million to make a great game. That $60 million Polyphony spent is not reflected in the end product of GT5, IMO.

1 up, 1 down

Snaaaake
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:40:14 PM

True Pork, it's the premium cars that's costly.

But they don't even spend 20 million on a game that's gonna net them a billion.

0 up, 0 down

TheShadow
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 8:44:28 PM

I would be surprised if it Didin't :)

0 up, 0 down

AcHiLLiA
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 7:30:35 PM
Reply

All I can say is BFBC2: Vietnam should do it for ya.

0 up, 1 down

Qubex
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 @ 11:37:34 PM
Reply

I don't own any CoD games beyond WaW... but congratulations to Activision for keeping the I.P. alive and healthy, there is no stopping it...

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

1 up, 0 down

Alienange
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 12:13:09 AM
Reply

How Activision pulled this off with a Treyarch product is damn near miraculous.

It is going to be VERY interesting next year to see what kind of product IW is capable of now that the real designers are all gone.

2 up, 2 down

___________
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 1:27:58 AM
Reply

further proof sales do not dictate quality.
i really cant see the big deal in COD, i mean theres hundreds of games with better MP modes, and pleanty of games with better MP modes.
KZ2, R2 and MAG for example, or even gears 2.
its a shame too, because now antivision are going to milk the series, and other developers are going to flood the market hoping to get a piece of the pie.
just like what ubisoft has done with assassins creed, AC2 sold so well for them they released brotherhood in a year and it sold so well even though it was a buggy mess and not even 10% as good!
and now AC3 is releasing next year.
how much you want to bet were going to have another brotherhood on our hands?
i swear to god if AC3 is anywhere near as bad as ACB it will be the last game i ever buy from ubisoft!
they have managed to change my most beloved series this gen, into my most hated!
tis why i hate the industry being so popular, if AC2 only sold 2M units ubisoft would of took there time to perfect ACB and the series would of not gone down the sh*tter!

0 up, 3 down

STAY3R
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 5:54:25 AM

brotherhood was buggy? dude buy the game first than comment.
Brotherhood is the technically most advanced AC yet, and this is the 3rd AC i got for PS3 ad i swear it runs smoother and looks better and the missions are more varied and the plot was way better than what i expected, a solid 9/10 for me.

1 up, 1 down

___________
Thursday, December 23, 2010 @ 7:46:36 AM

i have got it, finished it about 4 days after it released.
what more varied than AC2?
yea, that proves your the one who has not played it!
its the same mission over and over again, follow this guy without getting seen, kill some enemies, follow him to the next spot kill some enemies, rinse and repeat.
and yes it was buggy, almost every level i suffered a near game breaking glitch.
like one of the last levels where you have to go to the courtyard and meet someone there, i went to the marker got there the marker disappeared and nothing happened.
i walked around for ages looking for where i was suppose to go, reset my ps3 a few times same thing.
than i hoped online and watched that level and saw a cut scene is suppose to trigger when the marker disappears but i could not get it to trigger.
than i replaced my game tried again and it worked straight away.
not to mention the tens of times the bloody thing froze up on my and i had to reset my ps3.
in fact ive had more problems with ACB than ive had with fallout new vegas!
at least there not game breaking glitches like what brotherhood has.

0 up, 0 down

MadPowerBomber
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 3:48:58 AM
Reply

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to wrap my head around the nerdragehate directed towards Activision or the Call of Duty franchise I see around here and on other parts of the net.

1 up, 1 down

sha4dowknight05
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 @ 1:48:22 PM
Reply

HAHAHAHAHHAHAH I was part of this fiasco!!!!!!!!

Anyways congrats to activision for their Sucess!!!!!

0 up, 0 down

CrazyIrishBoy
Thursday, December 23, 2010 @ 7:18:36 AM
Reply

I havn't enjoyed a Cod game since MW1.. I dont know how many people i know that only play cod games now.. its madness.. advertising and brainwashing, mainly xbox players tho, congrats on making so much money on bad games!

Last edited by CrazyIrishBoy on 12/23/2010 7:18:53 AM

0 up, 1 down

YoMega
Thursday, December 23, 2010 @ 8:26:46 PM
Reply

Only thing I like doing on Black Ops: Zombies. I love that. The campaign isn't bad to be honest. I liked what I played.

Of course, my favorite game is a racing game, and of course, GT5 is in my PS3... More than black Ops.

1 up, 0 down

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