Thanks to its new “shared ecosystem,” the Call of Duty franchise has set a new record by raking in more than $3 billion for Activision over the last 12 months.
In a press release, the publisher also highlighted Black Ops Cold War‘s record-setting launch, and revealed that over 200 million people played Call of Duty this year. Warzone has been the go-to game for millions this year as the pandemic forced people indoors. The free-to-play title has surpassed 85 million players since launch and is integrated into the series’ mainline entries starting with Modern Warfare.
“The momentum over the last year across the Call of Duty ecosystem from free-to-play Warzone as well as post-launch support of Modern Warfare, and now to Black Ops Cold War has been incredible,” said Byron Beede, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Call of Duty. “This is the next great chapter in Black Ops with an amazing campaign, an all-new zombies experience and of course, high-octane multiplayer. Launch is only the beginning. We are focused on building a continuous pipeline featuring a tremendous amount of free, post-launch content and events across the franchise.”
The press release also noted multiple other milestones, including an 80 percent year-on-year increase in net bookings, a 40 percent year-on-year increase in units sold through, highest number of players in recorded history over the last year, and biggest ever November in terms of monthly players and hours played.
“The launch of Black Ops Cold War is only the beginning,” said Activision. “Additional free, post-release content for all Black Ops Cold War players is on the way as new seasons of content will continue to add and transform both the scope and scale of gameplay, with Season One set to debut this month.”
Black Ops Cold War Season 1 will launch on December 16th.
