Here in the UK sales of Infinity's shooter exploded past 1.2m copies in the first 24 hours, thanks to the mercy of supermarket price wars.
Using data from the sales of Grand Theft Auto IV, which sold 3.7m its first day worldwide, analyst Schachter extrapolates that Modern Warfare 2 could have cleared 7m.
"With GTA IV selling-through 6m units worldwide in its first week, that suggests week one of Modern Warfare 2 worldwide sell-through could approximate ~11.7m," he said.
"While 2x the week one tally for GTA IV may seem aggressive, the bottom line is that we believe current consensus estimates of around 12m for the December quarter may end up being conservative," he continued, reports CVG.
"First-person shooter titles tend to do better in the U.S. and U.K. markets vs. some other markets due to cultural reasons." Supermarkets in the UK have been at each other’s throats over videogame pricing recently, which is a huge load off for British gamers.
"In addition, heavy discounting and competition amongst supermarket stores in the U.K. (an important sales channel there) may have contributed to stronger first-day sales."
Could Modern Warfare 2 really have cleared 7 million copies its first day worldwide?
