Call of Duty remains one of the biggest franchises, having sold hundreds of millions of copies over the decades since the series began. One might think that being around for so long would eventually turn into a bit of burnout for the consumer, but it seems that the opposite is happening. The newest title in the series, Modern Warfare, has managed to maintain its number one spot in the United Kingdom after the Christmas sales have come through.
It certainly isn’t a spot to be kept without competition. FIFA 2020 keeps the second spot on the list, followed by Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Given that FIFA 2020 has had one of the largest physical launches and had already sold more than 10,000,000 copies by October, Modern Warfare isn’t exactly stuck in an easy contest.
Modern Warfare quickly smashed through expectations upon release, earning over $600,000,000 within just the first three days. Activision Blizzard was quick to label it as one of their most successful digital launches of all time after setting multiple records, both on PC and console as it swiftly sold more in its first weekend than any other in the franchise over the last six years.
https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/1201929984064929792?s=20
Other than the fact that FPSs are one of the most dominant genres in gaming (esports especially), it isn’t difficult to see why Modern Warfare has had such a success. For one, since it serves as a reboot of the Modern Warfare series within the Call of Duty franchise, it was likely always destined for record sales, as the Modern Warfare series is what defined the franchise for many.
Modern Warfare 3 had sold over 30,000,000 copies by February of this year, with Modern Warfare 2 not too far behind at 25,000,000. The first in the series, of which this 2019 release was a reboot of, had sold more than 17,000,000 copies itself. So this release hasn’t exactly been a dark horse.
Past that, the title also offers cross-platform support, which is thankfully growing more and more popular. Allowing players to play with friends on other consoles boosts sales since no one ever feels like they need to avoid a title out of not having the same system as their friends. In that same vein, it helps that it’s available on most of the main platforms for gaming.
So really, no one is too surprised to see Modern Warfare maintaining their spot in the UK as the top dog. Seeing as it did the same in the US for October and November, it isn’t likely we’ll see it removed from its throne for another month or two.
