Black Ops grosses $650 million in first five days worldwide
Activision's just announced Call of Duty: Black Ops has grossed $650 million within its first five days on sale worldwide.
The astonishing figure has bettered the $550 million made by Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 last year, and has "shattered theatrical box office, book and video game sales records for five-day worldwide sell through in dollars."
Also confirmed by Activision was that 5.9 million hours have been spent on multiplayer by the end of its launch day, with 2.6 million Live users playing MP in its first day.
"With a record breaking performance on Xbox LIVE, home to the world's largest Call of Duty gaming community, Call of Duty: Black Ops has already carved out its legacy as one of the biggest video games in history," said Xbox boss Don Mattrick.
"We congratulate our partners at Activision and Treyarch and are proud to continue offering the best Call of Duty experience to our 25 million global Xbox LIVE members by launching all Call of Duty map packs first on Xbox 360."
Naturally, big Bobby Kotick is very pleased.
"Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment," said the Activision boss.
"The title's success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.
"The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard's leadership role in online entertainment"
The title also became the biggest PS3 launch for Amazon.com and GameStop ever.
"Call of Duty: Black Ops has been an incredible success on PlayStation 3," added SCEA CEO, Jack Tretton.
"Treyarch's latest efforts are driving unprecedented traffic to the PlayStation Network with the flagship online experience this holiday season."
Black Ops sold 5.6 million units in the US and UK within in its first day on sale, with 2 million units sold in the UK in its first week.
But despite the big numbers, Activision is "excited about the performance of Call of Duty: Black Ops, but given that it is still very early in the holiday shopping season, the company remains cautiously optimistic."