Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War day one digital sales the highest in franchise history
The latest Call of Duty title has sold very well, breaking records through the weekend.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has had a stellar launch, breaking franchise records for its digital sales. The juggernaut franchise ploughed through the coronavirus pandemic to earn impressive numbers regardless.
There are few things that are certain in life. Taxes and Call of Duty selling really well are two of them though. This year's entry appears to be no exception either.
In a rundown of recent sales, GamesIndustry.biz noted that Activision was out touting the performance of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Despite a pandemic, the title has done exceptionally well. Activision Blizzard's EMEAA MD Anna Malmhake said in a statement, the game "set a new record as the highest first-day digital sales worldwide in franchise history."
While we don't know exact numbers, it's likely we will later in the week.
While this is good news, there is a minor cause for concern. In the UK, the game was down 64% in physical sales compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare last year. With many retailers closed due to lockdown in the country, that is perhaps not surprising though.
Interestingly, a breakdown of the game's performance by platforms was disclosed, including next-gen consoles. 39% of sales came on the PS4 and 34% came from the Xbox One. What's interesting though is that 17% came from the PS5 with only 9% for the Xbox Series consoles. Read into that what you will (although it's worth noting that the game has an exclusivity deal with Sony, which might help numbers.)
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has had some issues since releasing last week. The game has been the culprit for a lot of bugs on the PS5, including the 'Queued for Download' bug which has caused some users to factory reset their console. It's also caught some flack for aim assist problems for controller users.
At the end of the day though, the game seems to be performing very well, and that is impressive given the current state of the world.