Is Activision's mega-shooter finally losing some steam? According to two separate industry analysts, the numbers indicate that it is.
In the latest U.S. retail sales numbers from the NPD Group (via Gamasutra), they reveal that Black Ops 2 has sold 4.9 million copies for the Xbox 360, with the PS3 version sitting at 2.9 million. Sales numbers for the Wii U version and even for the PS Vita's Black Ops: Declassified, were unfortunately, not divugled.
In comparison, last year's Call of Duty, which was Modern Warfare 3, sold a record-setting 8.8 million units on Microsoft and Sony's platforms combined in its debut month; which was a healthy 10% increase over the eight million units the original Black Ops did in 2010.
Of course, it's also worth noting that the launch month for Black Ops 2 was shorter. In total, it had seven fewer days compared to Modern Warfare 3's launch month. However, even taking this into account, Doug Creutz of Cowen and Company estimated that Black Ops 2 would total 7.9 million units across all platforms, which would be a decline of 11 percent — though he cautioned against drawing any conclusion until the end of this year.
Here are the official sales numbers broken down in a graph.
In related news, Longbow Research's James Hardiman also noticed a significant drop in Call of Duty's sales. Using that 7.4 million units figure, Hardiman points out a 17% drop compared to MW3's sales last year. Of course, this might seem a little off since Activision has announced that Black Ops 2 has reached $1 billion in the quickest amount of time. but Hardiman points out that Black Ops 2 capitalized on the Thanksgiving sales week compared to MW3 (via GamesIndustry).
We do not believe that Activision did itself any favors by putting out a press release on Wednesday touting that Black Ops II had crossed $1 billion in just 15 days, faster than the 16 days required for Modern Warfare 3 to reach the $1 billion mark…What management did not mention is the fact that with an earlier release date, Modern Warfare 3 was able to reach $1 billion a day before Thanksgiving, whereas Black Ops II was not able to get there until after Cyber Monday.
So, what does all mean? While Call of Duty's sales are still massive, the numbers do tell that there is a decline — regardless if CoD fans admit it or not. Should Activision be worried? Maybe not right now, but seeing as next year will see the release of Battlefield 4, and possibly the announcement of Respawn's new shooter, Kotick might be keeping a closer look at it more so than usual.
Do you think Call of Duty is on the decline? If so, are you happy that it is or should people stop hating on the franchise?
