Modern Warfare 3 May Just Kind Of Be The Biggest Thing Ever
By Yannick LeJacq | November 14, 2011 | News | 1 comment | Share
Like so many video game journalists before me, I may have fallen prey to the hype machine of a large and successful publisher’s PR arm last week when I exclaimed that Modern Warfare 3 was “the biggest thing EVER.” Yes, Modern Warfare 3 did shatter all industry records, along with those set by Harry Potter, on its day one launch. Yes, if you factor in the business hours of game retailers, the game probably sold at an alarming rate of around 200 copies per second. And yes, the game sold nearly a million more copies than its predecessor, Black Ops, which had set a new industry record last November by selling 2.3 million more copies than its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
But all of this distracts from what is clearly the most important question: is Modern Warfare 3 definitively the biggest thing EVER?
All I can say is: maybe?
When Modern Warfare 3 hit the shelves less than a week ago, publishers and retailers immediately began speculating as to whether the game could break the five-day sales record established by Black Ops last year. Eurogamer reported this morning that overall sales for Modern Warfare 3 clocked in just under the two million mark, a 1.6 percent decrease from Black Ops sales in the UK. Later this morning, however, the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment contacted Eurogamer to dispute these sales figures as “unverifiable.”
There is additional speculation that Modern Warfare 3′s incredible lead was nonetheless hindered by Bethesda’s latest installment in their famed Elder Scrolls series: Skyrim. While the game settled for a second-place debut, it still achieved the fifth biggest opening week of the year (after Modern Warfare 3, FIFA 12, Battlefield 3 and only just behind Gears of War 3), and doubled the opening week figures for Fallout: New Vegas, making it Bethesda’s fastest selling game ever.
We will post any updates on Modern Warfare 3‘s sales records as they become available.
gta V will be the most saled game