Call of Duty: Ghosts smashes onto shelves with $1bn of sales
Video game Call of Duty: Ghosts has seen a staggering £620m (that's over $1bn) of retail sales on its first day, according to the games publisher. The game went on sale at 15,000 locations around the world at midnight last night. The figure refers to "sell-in" to retailers – it doesn't correspond to a "sell-through" to customers. First-day sales last year amounted to $500m (£310m).
Grand Theft Auto V, which was recently named Amazon's fastest ever selling game, hit $1bn in sales three days after it was launched, at the beginning of October.
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, makers of Call of Duty, said:
Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation, More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty(R): Black Ops II, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year. Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it's launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular.
