Whether you love them or you hate them, no one can deny the fact that Activision’s Call of Duty franchise is a money making machine. Now they can boast yet another insane milestone. Daniel Ahmad, a well known analyst for the gaming market, has reported that the company has announced that the series has officially sold over 300 million lifetime units.
To put this in perspective, the franchise started in 2003 with the very first Call of Duty. In just 15 years it’s made humongous leaps and bounds in terms of redefining the online multiplayer, as well as the FPS aspects. To compare, Pokemon is just a little ahead of Call of Duty in units sold, sitting around the 350 million mark. However, they only recently made it to that threshold in 2017 after the release of Ultra Sun and Moon, well after their first game in 1996, a 21 year difference.
While the exact numbers for each and every game is arguable, it’s more than likely that the majority of these sales came from the Modern Warfare and Black Ops sub series, especially with Black Ops 4 launching just last year. It’s been an interesting 15 years to say the least as many controversies have come about directly pertaining to the franchise, especially with the recent outcry on Activisions microtransaction methods. Still, the fact remains that Call of Duty is one of the highest selling franchises in video gaming history.
Speaking of which, the future of the next entry has been the topic of many gamers as Activision usually makes the announcement around this time of the year. Some rumors have suggested that it will be the latest segment for the Modern Warfare series from Infinity Ward, but as of now it’s anyone’s guess. On top of that, their is a Call of Duty mobile game in the works in conjunction with Tencent that has yet to be announced. With E3 2019 looming ever closer, were sure to be in for more information sooner than later.
