Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sets new five-day entertainment record

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has obliterated its own five-day entertainment record, grossing more than $775 million worldwide.

To be exact, it has beaten theatrical box office, book and video game sales records for five-day worldwide sell-through in dollars.

Black Ops made $650 million in five days. Modern Warfare 2 made $550 million.

It is the best-selling video game launch of all time in the top-five US shops: Amazon.com and at Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Walmart.

It has established a new Xbox Live record for concurrent players, with 3.3 million unique online players on one day. Black Ops' record was 2.6 million.

Microsoft said more than 7 million multiplayer hours were logged playing MW3 by the end of launch day, 8th November. This was a 19 per cent increase over last year's 5.9 million multiplayer hours logged playing Black Ops on launch day.

MW3 set a new franchise mark for the number of simultaneous online gamers playing Call of Duty on PlayStation Network on its first day, although Sony declined to offer figures.

Activision failed to reveal sales figures for the five day period. We do know, however, that it sold over 6.5 million units in the US and UK in the first 24 hours of release. Those sales amounted to $400 million in revenue.

"With $775 million of sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its first five days, Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across all forms of entertainment," said Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick.

"Life-to-date retail sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded $6 billion worldwide, which makes Call of Duty one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world. We expect continued sales momentum, as reviews and audience enthusiasm suggest that this is the best Call of Duty game that we have ever made.

"Online play for Modern Warfare 3 is at record levels and we continue to see high online play for both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which ranked as the #2 and #4 top-played Xbox Live games for the week of November 7, according to Major Nelson."

"As I have said all year, we have been singularly focused on making a spectacular game for our fans, and nothing else," added Eric Hirshberg, Activision Publishing boss.

"Our incredible teams at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have done just that. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 continues to thrill core gaming enthusiasts as well as draw new people into the medium, which is not an easy balancing act. But it takes more than a great game.

"I would also like to thank our incredible team for the pulling off the launch of the year, as well as our retail partners around the world. But most of all, I want to thank our fans. They are our toughest critics, and our biggest supporters, and none of this would be possible without them."