Call of Duty Modern Warfare III Topped US Charts Despite Launch Controversies

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the “bad guys win?” As in, something or someone is clearly “not in the right,” and yet something still goes their way despite that? You might not think this would happen in the video game industry, but you’d be wrong. After all, Geoff Keighley keeps “winning” despite The Game Awards being a bore every year, but that’s another story entirely. In this case, we’re talking about Call of Duty Modern Warfare III. Ever since the game came out, it’s been blasted by plenty of people, from gamers to celebrities to other game devs and beyond.

Yet despite all that, when the NPD numbers for November came out, Call of Duty Modern Warfare III was on top of the US charts. Here’s the tweet to prove it:

That will disappoint many out there because this game has been judged for legitimate reasons. Many wanted it to fail on multiple levels so that the Sledgehammer Games and their publisher, Activision Blizzard, could learn their lesson. But since that didn’t happen, everything is pointless, right?

Well, not exactly. Context is absolutely key here. While it’s true that the game may have done well in the US during November, it also didn’t have that much competition. Plus, the franchise is known to “reach many gamers” more than other titles that have been released in recent months. Furthermore, sales often happen BEFORE the judgments about the title are revealed. Many players likely had the title pre-ordered for months and likely felt that the “issues” wouldn’t matter in the long run. As such, the game was almost guaranteed to do well upon release simply due to name value.

But that doesn’t mean it was a total success. In the UK, the game did MUCH worse at launch in comparison to the previous entry in the line:

A 40% drop is something you can’t just “shake off,” as that’s a lot of sales they didn’t make. Plus, we don’t know how this launch in the US did compared to the last entry. It was an entry that had the biggest launch in series history. So, at the very least, we know it hasn’t done that so far.

The backlash toward the game has been so strong that even Christopher Judge got in on the “fun” by poking fun at it at The Game Awards, which the dev team didn’t enjoy. But when you set yourself up for that kind of joke? You have to eat some humble pie.