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Call of Duty franchise map packs recruit 20 million

Infinity Ward-, Treyarch-developed installments in Activision's shooter series surpass double-decamillion milestone in lifetime-to-date sales.

As part of its 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo presence in June, Activision trumpeted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's latest sales milestone, saying the top-rated shooter from Infinity Ward had sold 20 million units worldwide. Now, that same milestone has been passed by the Call of Duty franchise's downloadable map packs. Today, Activision said that lifetime-to-date sales of the add-on arenas have surpassed 20 million units.

Modern Warfare 2's Resurgence map pack has been a sales leader.

Modern Warfare 2's Resurgence map pack has been a sales leader.

Activision did not provide a game-by-game sales breakdown for the map packs. The publisher had not returned requests for comment as of press time.

Previously, the publisher had announced that Modern Warfare 2's Resurgence Map Pack had sold 2.5 million units on the Xbox 360 alone. Prior to that, Activision said in July 2009 that the first two map packs for Treyarch's COD: World at War had shifted 4 million units. As for Call of Duty 4, Activision said in April 2008 that it had sold 1 million units on the Xbox 360 alone within two weeks of launch.

As for the franchise itself, Activision said in November that the series had generated more than $3 billion since Infinity Ward's highly acclaimed original shipped for the PC in 2003. Since then the series has gone on to sell some 55 million units.

That figure is likely to balloon as Activision dramatically increases its output of franchise installments. Beyond Treyarch's COD: Black Ops, which is due for release November 9, Activision is also prepping an action adventure installment at Sledgehammer Games, a new Modern Warfare installment at Infinity Ward, and a massively multiplayer online installment for Asian markets.

The success hasn't been without casualties, however. The problems surfaced in March, after Infinity Ward cofounders Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired. After their dismissal, the pair sued the company, which sued back, alleging they had been plotting to start a new studio with chief Activision rival Electronic Arts. Within weeks, West and Zampella did just that. A number of Infinity Ward developers jumped ship to join the new studio, dubbed Respawn Entertainment, while others simply resigned.

392 Comments

  • TheRealUser101

    Posted Aug 8, 2011 10:12 am GMT

    MW3 will be the third installment in the Modern Warfare series, and the eighth Call of Duty installment. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be released on November 8, 2011, while the Modern Warfare 3 pre-production started on April 9, 2010.

  • sguint-eyed

    Posted Dec 21, 2010 11:19 am GMT

    now what is is 15$ x 20million?

  • GordonFrohman11

    Posted Oct 3, 2010 12:43 am GMT

    I love Modern Warfare 2 but there's no way I'm shelling out $15 each for the map packs. For that price I could buy Far Cry 2 or STALKER and so I did.

  • XboxGuy1537

    Posted Sep 22, 2010 7:34 pm GMT

    MW2 continues to make bucket loads of cash....

  • Freezezzy

    Posted Sep 13, 2010 12:58 am GMT

    "A fool and his money are soon parted."

    ~ Company motto of Activision

  • JixHedgehog

    Posted Sep 11, 2010 10:39 pm GMT

    I'm not normally into first person shooters, but my wife picked this game up for me.. and I'm glad she did.
    Each day for about a week I couldn't wait to get home and play it and it just got better and better with each passing campaign in story mode. Playing games for over 25 years I can easily say this game deserves all the praise it's receiving.
    ... oh, and I'm terrible at multiplayer

  • FarmFreshDX

    Posted Sep 9, 2010 1:53 pm GMT

    I agree with Thingta. The thing that really blew my mind is that for $10 more than a MW2 mappack, I could buy Bad Company 2 complete on Steam. Take a minute to let that sink in.

  • Snoopydadog

    Posted Aug 27, 2010 8:33 am GMT

    I'm in 2 minds about mw2, its an amazing game with a great single player, co-op an multiplayer and easily one of the greatest games of all time but maybe it's too good. You play campaign and spec ops to death, that leaves multiplayer which takes months out of people's lives leaving them pale-skinned, blood-shot eyed addicts. then you get the k**bs which run around like indestructible video game gods who get nuke after nuke cos their skills have been honed by 24/7 marathons and are really girlfriendless geeks in real life, the people who shout down their mics every time they get killed "OMG! Glitch! I so got that guy first!" You get bored of it and stay away but it keeps drawing you back in, if you are lucky and are'nt addicted then stay away from mw2, if you don't think you are but can't physically throw it away, sell it or even stay two weeks without playing on it then you are addicted but just in denial. It is too big and too powerful and messes with people's heads making them crave for more (like smoking). It's become so big that its in 10% of teenage boy's conversations and has spawned various new slang words like:pwnd, no-scope etc. It is such a good game that it is its own weakness. You can just assume I am a guy just having a go cos he is awful at COD multiplayer, but then you will be just one of those d***s you see online and you can kiss my a**.

  • willywonkamusic

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 3:49 am GMT

    do not like the dlc price, why can't it be $5 for dlc. god damn money whore

  • Sgthombre

    Posted Aug 14, 2010 3:37 pm GMT

    Oh.... THAT'S why they keep making COD

  • thingta42

    Posted Aug 14, 2010 2:36 am GMT

    These COD heads will always buy 15$ Map packs and will most likely sucker into the Subscirption based Multiplayer. What it boils down to is that the 15$ Map pack is making the pavement for the 20$ Map pack.

  • esfuerzo31

    Posted Aug 14, 2010 1:21 am GMT

    I was thinking about getting this and the previous dlc. But it was too expensive so i thought i'd wait a bit and think it over. I started playing mw2 again, after a 5 month hiatus, and i hated it and did not have fun. Campers, commandoes, putting noobs against veterans (was kinda a noob to mw2 definitely not to mw1), overpowered kill streaks etc. I was not having fun and the only way i could play this game is if i used a heart beat sensor, silencer, ninja, cold blooded, javelin, tar rifle and bling. Without this, i could not play this game. If your calling me a noob your too late, i just did a while ago. I loved this combo since i was the anti-camper, i killed thier trips, i destroyed their stupid harriers, ac-130s, pavelow (sp). But i didn't like having to use to this to compete. Luckily, i tried out bad company2, and I have not turned to COD since. I love the game. I recommend that you try it. You have nothing to lose. No more meat grinder! It's so much fun. Just rent it and see how you like it. Thats wut i did. I'm so glad i didn't buy the maps!

  • Conan_513

    Posted Aug 13, 2010 1:36 pm GMT

    I like CoD:WaW and CoD4.
    CoD2 is a simple FPS game and MW2 is good, but this hosting system sucks and oo many cheater in game -.-"

  • InFamous_626

    Posted Aug 11, 2010 6:52 pm GMT

    :56 WOW! COMMANDO NOOB

  • bakasora

    Posted Aug 9, 2010 8:53 am GMT

    COD2 Great!
    COD4 Epic!!
    CODMW2 Ok...
    CODBO what? again?

  • Dioforever

    Posted Aug 8, 2010 12:35 pm GMT

    i dont know why all this exotic awards when naming this fail game, CODMW2 to be specific. Its sad its the only good shooter out there. Im ready to hop on the next good shooter that comes out because this game is an embarrassment, glitched, campable-maps, noobtubing-dangerclose(dont know why its called 'danger close' all u gotta do is ploop from a distance and u can get a noobish multi-kill) game.

  • FlameRiser

    Posted Aug 8, 2010 11:44 am GMT

    they shoulda stopped after cod4

  • blueguykisame

    Posted Aug 8, 2010 10:33 am GMT

    @omm1990 yeah different types would be nice, but almost stepping into a pure zombie game's territory.. remembers its just a side part to the game.. wouldnt want it to be like a completely separate game. But yeah different types of zombies, or aliens, or different types fof aliens.. tbh with the newer equipment i think that i'd enjoy aliens a little more.

  • Slymerz posted Aug 8, 2010 4:28 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Slymerz

    Posted Aug 8, 2010 4:28 am GMT (hide)

    mw2 is the worse game of 2009 for 2 months and worse game of 2010 for 10 months

  • PuppetMaster786

    Posted Aug 7, 2010 6:43 pm GMT

    although its overrated this game is amazing, they just NEED to fix online play

  • ali-ali-1411 posted Aug 6, 2010 10:41 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ali-ali-1411

    Posted Aug 6, 2010 10:41 pm GMT (hide)

    cod is the best shooter EVER ! ! ! !

  • ManUtd4life096

    Posted Aug 5, 2010 6:34 pm GMT

    Realize please people that this isn't just MW2, it's for the ENTIRE CoD series.

  • gbrading Site moderator

    Posted Aug 5, 2010 6:13 pm GMT

    A lot of people playing an awful lot of Call of Duty, and making Activision a lot of money.

  • Barighm

    Posted Aug 5, 2010 3:02 pm GMT

    And people wonder why they have DLC and charge so much for it. It sells. Why should they listen to you people? Well, the only advice I have for you is this: once I started making more than minimum wage, the price of DLC content became trivial. Obviously these publishers are targeting similar people.

  • Phoenix6359

    Posted Aug 5, 2010 9:55 am GMT

    @Jackmac36, because people are idiots. All this will do is increase prices of all DLC as developers know people will buy stuff no matter the cost. Bioware and EA seem to be the only companies that give free stuff or really cheap stuff that other companies would charge full price for.

  • Jackmac36

    Posted Aug 5, 2010 12:01 am GMT

    Can somebody please explain to me why in the world 20 million people actually paid upwards of $10 for one single map pack?

  • SorrowsFlame

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 10:58 pm GMT

    This is just...sad. So many suckers that pay so much money for almost no content. No wonder developers make everything DLC now...suckers jump to buy anything nowadays.

    And no, I haven't bought a single CoD game specifically because the developers just milk the series.

  • 6h05tly

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 1:42 pm GMT

    (Looked at article again...) Oh, it's a combined total of DLC from the entire CoD series. Silly me , but still...

  • 6h05tly

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 1:40 pm GMT

    My cousin complained about the price, and the content, of Stimulus Package, and yet he still plays the game.

    If LBP content, say individual outfits, each retailed at $15, I would just give up supporting to purchase their DLC. But 20 million downloads for MW2: I'm shocked in disgust by these numbers.

    Why can't shooters these days have the same quality of gameplay, say Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, or the Half-Life series? FPS these days are mediocrity at its lowest. I'm sorry to anyone who finds this rant of mine a bit hard to believe. I'm just saying this out of concern over the genre, that's all, sigh

  • TheSnakeBelmont

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 11:24 am GMT

    a fiend of mine bought the map packs 4 ps3 then he share with me his username/password so i con ''redownload '' them on my system... no way i would ever pay that much 4 some maps that are barely used on regular matches. btw im not fan of Cod but most of gamers here are so hypocrite bashin a game that most of you have bought 2.1 times (accordin with teh sales ) jus cuz is no ''cool '' nemore

  • im-a-roustabout

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 7:48 am GMT

    @SalarianChemist

    I don't mean to disagree with you, just wanna give you some food for thought. If the people who are complaining about the map packs, then they have to be 360 owners. So why would they suddenly hate COD b/c they're not going to the ps3 right away?

  • icekids

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 7:14 am GMT

    demo MW2 only on PSN

  • JYNUGGETS posted Aug 4, 2010 5:44 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    JYNUGGETS

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 5:44 am GMT (hide)

    C.O.D for Life!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Rudorlf

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 1:09 am GMT

    MW2 map packs? Pshaw, Team Fortress 2 gives us free contents (Way more than MW2) and 100x the fun.

  • super600

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 12:48 am GMT

    To all the people telling MW2 haters to suck up. I just suggest you wake up and realize what Activision is doing to their consumers and their workers. The same thing happen to the Lehamen Brothers were they were too greedy with money and screwing everyone over.So I suggest you stop making comments about people being too poor to buy these map packs because some parts of these map packs have ripped off a lot of people that owned the original MW.

  • gamingfrendly

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 12:37 am GMT

    god damn on these cash sucking dlcs i wont buy any dlc for any game only if that dlc is a big add on other than that they can shove it im done spending on dlcs

  • y0ur_grandma

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 8:06 pm GMT

    20 million douche bags.

  • dynomitemasta posted Aug 3, 2010 6:52 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    dynomitemasta

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 6:52 pm GMT (hide)

    Stop all the hatin' kids ... it's NOT cool.

  • Philly1UPer

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 6:22 pm GMT

    @ melty3219

    No, its called not rolling over on a companies demand to shell out 30 dollars for crap that should have most likely be in the game to begin with. *cough*ResidentEvil5Multiplayerfor5bucks*cough*

    And BC2 already dead? lol, people very much still play that. I find BC2 more realistic because when I shoot a rocket in BC2 at a building and blow it up killing the people inside Unlike COD because in COD MW2, the most realistic shooter according to the back of the box, If you shoot a building with an RPG, it doesn't do anything at all. Nothing, no holes, no taking the building down, let alone killing a guy behind the wall.

  • dynomitemasta

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 6:00 pm GMT

    I'm cool... I used to like it before it was all popular and stuff... infact I'm so cool I'm gonna hate on it becasue if I don't that wouldn't be cool, and I'm cooler than that becasue I don't even game anymore and I bought it and returned it without opening becasue I'm cooler than everyone else... so I'm gonna get my copy 2 months early but II won't open it becasue I just "that cool" Excuse me while I go play the flavor of the month game that only the cool people play, it's so cool no one knows about it...cool

  • spiderman52

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 5:52 pm GMT

    mw2 is wack. I lik world at war better nd its more fun cuz they hav nazi zombies a survival mode. Ifinity ward r retarted for putting spec ops. those are the same missions from story nd the story of the first. Im stickin with treyarch and gettin black ops. Plus the maps 4 world at war are 9.99 each not 15. Black ops will own modern warfare

  • spiderman52

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 5:52 pm GMT

    mw2 is wack. I lik world at war better nd its more fun cuz they hav nazi zombies a survival mode. Ifinity ward r retarted for putting spec ops. those are the same missions from story nd the story of the first. Im stickin with treyarch and gettin black ops. Plus the maps 4 world at war are 9.99 each not 15. Black ops will own modern warfare

  • melty3219

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 5:12 pm GMT

    Also @ the people bragging because they didn't buy the DLC, you guys must be some real sad nerds if you gain the feeling of self righteousness for not buying something.

  • melty3219 posted Aug 3, 2010 5:10 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    melty3219

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 5:10 pm GMT (hide)

    Lmao at the hipster Garbagefield fanboys trolling, BC2 sucks and its already dead whereas MW2 is still top after 7 months. A map sold 4x as much as BC2!

  • Blazember

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 5:01 pm GMT

    I hope Infinity Ward gets things together, or this may be the end of the great COD series as we know it, at least, a QUALITY COD series! Why would things fall apart in such a great company! This is terrible.

  • Petch1984

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 4:46 pm GMT

    I played MW2 flat out for a few months but it slowly turned into a grind so I sold it - I don't hate it I just moved on. I won't buy Black-ops but I might get Jason West and Vince Zampella's next title as they were the real talent and the other team seemed to always play catch up. I think the FPS genre needs some form of ground breaking innovation so it doesn't stagnate - I was hoping MAG would do this but it ended up so-so. Maybe a rolling warzone - in real life battles rarely stay confined to a closed area so perhaps some form of dynamic environment.... I don't know anything because all these games still feel like variations of Counter Strike.

  • jk80

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 4:17 pm GMT

    Interesting that the overpriced Resurgence map pack was only bought by a small fraction of all those who bought MW2. That's partly the problem with map packs, you can't enjoy them with nearly as many people.

  • KlepticGrooves

    Posted Aug 3, 2010 3:36 pm GMT

    i think we all saw this coming

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