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Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Is This Generation's Best-Selling Game

It's been a big year for Call of Duty.

61 Comments

As part of today's quarterly earnings report, Activision Blizzard took the opportunity to boast about the performance of some of its games, including the most recent iteration of Call of Duty.

Last year's Black Ops III "continues to be the top-selling current-gen game" according to Activision, which cited sales data from the NPD Group and Gfk Chart-Track. That may not come as a surprise given how strong of a start it got off to--despite releasing in November, it ended up as the best-selling game of 2015.

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Activision also highlighted the ways Black Ops III has outperformed the previous Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare. It said Black Ops III tops Advanced Warfare in terms of full game sales, in-game-content sales, monthly active users, and the rather esoteric metric of "engagement."

Compared with the same period in previous years, the Call of Duty franchise generated more revenue than it ever has during the first half of 2016. Activision also saw the number of people buying in-game content double, and it did so without seeing the average revenue generated per person decline.

Finally, the company claimed that this year's Infinite Warfare is seeing a higher percentage of preorders on the more expensive versions of the game. That's undoubtedly due to the fact that those are the only versions that come with a copy of Modern Warfare Remastered.

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Grenadeh

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Fucking console casuals.

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ZeEzO

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Sales are one thing, lets see the number or people playing daily online for Aguust compared to the launch week.

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Grenadeh

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@ZeEzO: It's not even in the top 10 on Steam at all, so at least someone is doing something right.

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deactivated-5c1c32e0b8cc8

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This news kind of surprises me. I personally haven't liked Call of Duty for quite some time now. I believe the last one me and all my friends played together was Ghosts on the Xbox 360, and that one wasn't even all that great. My all time favorite was either the original Modern Warfare or World at War. I'm hoping with the release of Battlefield 1, Call of Duty will take a hint and get back into either modern times or an older war.

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stuff238

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Edited By stuff238

I will just wait the extra 3-6 months and get CoD4 remastered when it becomes stand alone.

LOL if you actually believe activisions lies when they say it's never getting a stand alone release.

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BigGamerDude

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After reading many arcticles and reading comments, I can conclude that most of the people that hate on Call Of Duty are the people who don't play it.

Sure you can keep on saying that Call Of Duty is the same every year, but the fact is that the games keep changing, and are vastly different from each other. What matters most is having fun, and if I'm having fun, I have no need to be picky and say "god I wish it was like the old games"

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Grenadeh

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Edited By Grenadeh

@biggamerdude: They really don't.

Step 1. Put a bunch of cool shit in the campaign that does not exist at all in multiplayer.

Step 2. Shoot a lot of guys. Shoot a lot of robots. Shoot a lot of drones. Shoot civilians. Never. Stop. Shooting.

I played CoD since day 1. Before kids ever heard of CoD I was playing it with my friends when we were in college, when it first came out. We played CAL CoD 2 as a clan and we loved it. Then CoD 3 came out it was Wii exclusive. Then CoD 4 came out and ruined the franchise and the entire FPS genre and most of us stopped playing.

However, since then, I've played CoD MW2, CoD MW3, CoD BLops, CoD Blops 2, CoD Blops 3, and WaW. I've seen ghosts and AW and whatever this new thing is. They all look like shit, just as bad as Blops 3.

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smokerob79

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@biggamerdude: yeah i just dont like what they have done with it and its not fun for me.....

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VFighter

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@biggamerdude: Lmao at your line about the games changing and being vastly different from one another, lol.

I've played all the console COD games, I used to LOVE the series. But even at my height of cod fandom I knew they weren't much different from year to year. The mp gets small changes, the campaigns get a new coat of paint, that's it.

They're still using the quake engine for Christ sake, and have it maxed out in what they can and can't do, its probably the biggest reason for the series not being able to move forwards. The biggest change was the jumping in AW and blops 3, and that addition ruined the mp because they couldn't produce maps that took into account the new mechanics, the old engine was holding them back. I'm sure the yearly schedule and Activision being horrible are also holding the games back.

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ZeEzO

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@vfighter: Come on man that's not all they changed, did you forget about those "sweet" supply drops that you can spend real world money on.

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WhoIsTheDrizzle

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Of course people buying in game content doubled. The last few years has seen more and more microtransactions inserted into the games. And the game is riding off the black ops name.

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MakoShark222

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AW was more fun for me because it took more skill to be a good player. BO3 is too nOObified to really be a serious shooter. Its alright because its CoD and thats about it. I'm SLAUGHTERING those guys!

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smokerob79

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@makoshark222: none of them are real shooters.....i have only seen about 3 games with real bullet drop.....it goes off and to the right not just down.......

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zeldafan195

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It's amazing how this can sell millions, while most gamers won't even try smaller indie games like Undertale, Axiom Verge, Inside...

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BigGamerDude

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@zeldafan195: It's because of how easy to pick up and play Call Of Duty is. Hell, I love COD and I also love other indie games, like Undertale or Mutant Mudds.

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skrilla99

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I just traded it in two days ago. Haven't played it in I don't know how long ago. Bought for $40, traded for $28. 2 year rental $12.

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Ti22Samurai

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I am not playing this crap. You are not telling me this horrible addition outsold MW2, MW3 and Blk Ops 2.

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VFighter

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@ti22samurai: Best selling this gen, ps4 Xone. I'm sure MW2, Blops, etc outsold this turd.

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DARREN636

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Edited By DARREN636

I thought black ops 3 would continue the slide in sales...

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wexorian

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Edited By wexorian

Sheeps keep buying every cod ,EA sports games, AC"Ubisoft is done" and other yearly overmilked ,butchered franchises that cost overall more than 100$ with every ""expansion""dlc.

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smokerob79

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Edited By smokerob79

@wexorian: its UBI sucks, with over watched dog turds, "made be heard from a far crying in boredom 4" "titan FAILED" "battling on a dysfunctional filed" "EA PORTS games" and a couple of ones i cant think of

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wexorian

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I don't see any numbers at all, so give us numbers i don't trust craptivision marketings.

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asifah30

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I am afraid same could be true for COD:IW in this year.

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Mizarzeug

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Well deserved This CoD B3 worth is price giving Campaign, multiplayer, zombie mode and minigame unlike other shooters that only offer multiplayer for the same price.

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Marky360

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Lol I find it hilarious that despite all the internet hate COD gets every year it STILL manages to outsell everything else. Gamers are such hypocrites lol.

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UltimateBastard

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@Marky360: I would say there's a lot of clowns like myself who buy it every year around launch, play it for a week or two and barely look near it again. There is no denying the last two have been trash, although I kinda enjoyed the single player from advanced warefare.

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hystavito

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Edited By hystavito

@Marky360: Heh, it's just different crowds. Gamers like us who hang around gaming sites and comment and stuff, we're really a tiny minority, of course. That's not to say there aren't CoD fans among "us" as well, they're here too. Personally I don't care for CoD but I will not say that it's trash and that the millions upon millions of people who love it are idiots :).

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Balrogbane

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I thought CoD sales had slumped bad after the past few games. How is it their still on top?

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Freezezzy

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@balrogbane: I think the remaster of CoD 4 has something to do with it, as far as the preorders of Infinite Warfare go. They're using it to prop up sales.

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Gravity_Slave

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Edited By Gravity_Slave

"Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Is This Generation's Best-Selling Game"

Lol um for who? I can name a dozen other games that would fit that bold statement better. This sounds like something the developer would say in a tone of false excitement in hype generation.

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Marky360

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@Gravity_Slave:

When they say generation they mean console generation it has sold better than every other game this generation.

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wexorian

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@Marky360: Less likely :D

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jshah500

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I thought it would have been GTAV honestly. I'm guessing it's in second.

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Dcyple3000

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Edited By Dcyple3000

@jshah500: GTAV released on PS3/Xbox360 then PC. it missed this gen by a year

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BigGamerDude

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@Dcyple3000: It also released on PS4 and XBONE.

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rosinmonkekyx17

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Edited By rosinmonkekyx17

I find this hard to believe...

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fig56

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@rosinmonkekyx17: why? Because COD is supposed to be dead? Yeah. OK.

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Gravity_Slave

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@fig56: it's not dead but it isn't doing well. Last numbers that came in for Inifinite pre-orders was just over 30,000. Sounds like a lot? MW2, BO1 and MW3 were in the 400,000-5k range. So yeah, ok.

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fig56

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Edited By fig56

@Gravity_Slave: Are you really comparing games from almost 10 yrs ago? We all know sales have slumped but they are far from dead. Which is the point I was making there genius.

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deactivated-57cadb5cefcfc

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Every year people mone about Call of Duty; yet every year it sells.

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Moose-Fitz

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"CoD is dead" "RIP CoD" Lmao. When will these people realize they are always wrong?? Will they be right one day? Yes. Actually, is that their plan? If they keep saying it every year they will eventually be right and finally be able to say "I knew it!"? Stay strong, CoD will cease to exist one day. As of right now though it's as strong as ever.

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jshah500

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@moose-fitz: I see it going on the decline this year with the amazing response BF1 is receiving. Last year when BOIII came out, there was no competition (Battlefront was pathetic). This year there's Titanfall 2 and BF1 sharing the same space.

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