Activision-Blizzard is giving investors a strong reminder that even though the Call of Duty franchise is 15 years old, its popularity with players is showing no signs of stopping.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was October’s best-selling game, automatically vaulting to the top of the year to date sales charts as well, according to The NPD Group. That came hand in hand with the best October sales since the organization began tracking the industry in 1995. Gamers last month spend $1.55 billion on hardware, software and accessories. (The previous record was $1.36 billion in 2008.) Black Ops 4, which is trying to take market share from Fortnite, recorded sales of $500 million in its first three days, including the most day one digital sales of any title in Activision history.
That growth comes amid a larger surge of interest in games overall. Year-to-date, sales are up 21% compared to the same period a year ago, coming in at $10.5 billion.
The rapid rise of Black Ops 4 is an impressive feat, but the game shouldn’t get too comfortable as king of the 2018 sales hill. Red Dead Redemption 2 was the month’s second best-selling game, after just nine days on shelves. And it is already the year’s second bestselling game.
Made by the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series. Red Dead Redemption 2 initial sales were more than triple that of its predecessor. Publisher Take-Two Interactive Software previously announced the game has recorded sales of $750 million in three days. Some 17 million copies of the game sold in the first eight days of availability.