It’s begun: Black Ops II day-one pre-orders top Modern Warfare 3

How can you tell a new entry in a series is going to be a success mere days after it's been announced? More specifically, how can you tell it's going to be more successful that previous entries in the series? Well, with the news that day-one pre-orders for Black Ops II have topped the day one pre-orders for both Modern Warfare 3 and the original Black Ops, its success is practically a foregone conclusion.

Amazon today announced that the pre-orders for Black Ops II place it with ten times as many day-one pre-orders as the original Black Ops and as much as 30% more than Modern Warfare 3. This is especially impressive thanks to the fact that Modern Warfare 3 was previously the most pre-ordered game on Amazon.

This might be little more than an initial surge, immediate purchases by people who know they'll be getting the next Call of Duty no matter what. More likely, it's the continuation of an upwards trend that has followed the series for quite a few years in a row.