Despite making outrageous pre-release claims that its military shooter Modern Warfare 2 would enjoy ‘the biggest game launch ever,’ third-party publisher Activision’s arrogance now looks more like plain and simple belief in an incredibly strong product.
\'Weapons free!\' Image: Activision/Infinity Ward.
Moreover, new monthly figures offered up by market research specialist NPD Group reveal that the epic Infinity Ward-developed action shooter amassed enough retail momentum during November to shift in excess of 6 million units across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3.
Smashing the previous opening-month sales record of 3.3 million units (held since 2007 by Bungie’s Halo 3), Modern Warfare 2 sold some 4.2 million copies on the Xbox 360 and a further 1.87 million copies on the PlayStation 2, according to NPD’s numbers.
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has achieved the top spot for first-month sales of any game at the title level,” confirmed NPD analyst Anita Fraser regarding the shooter’s astounding traction.
“Halo 3 previously held the top spot when it sold 3.3 million units in September of ’07 in 12 days at retails. MW2 bested Halo 3’s daily sales rate by 16 per cent in its 19 days at retail in November,” she added.
Other major releases in November that, Modern Warfare notwithstanding, have posted impressive figures include the likes of New Super Mario Bros. Wii (1.39 million sales), Assassin’s Creed II (1.24 million sales) and Left 4 Dead 2 (744,000 unit sales).
However, while November’s software surge has certainly helped the gaming industry regain some of its ebbing strength, total sales across the top 50 titles of 2009 are still down when compared to 2008’s gathering of top earners.
“While this year’s top-selling item bested last year’s by 283 per cent, it couldn’t make up for softness elsewhere,” explained Fraser. “The top 50 games this year sold 5 per cent less units than did the top 50 last year.”
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