UPDATE: Activision has announced 6.5M day one sales, which is still a record breaker. According to CEO Bobby Kotick, "We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories. Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings," two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time." Let us know if you bought the game yourself and are enjoying it.
ORIGINAL: If preliminary reports are to be believed, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is shaping up to be another Call of Duty mega-blockbuster, as it seems the title has sold an astounding 9.3M units on the very first day. This would be the largest videogame launch in history. The Xbox 360 version alone reportedly sold 5M day one units.According to VGChartz, "The Xbox 360 version sees around a 54% share, meaning it's the first game on one platform to pass 5 million on its first day. The PlayStation 3 version held 42%, which is around the 4 million mark. Both day ones are only slightly behind Black Ops entire first week sales. The PC version and the Wii version held the remaining 4%, which is around 370,000 units."
Keep in mind, the figures come from VGChartz and are not official NPD stats, but the site has been accurate in the past. It'll be interesting to see what the official reported sales figures are.
Regardless, Modern Warfare 3 is up 33% from the pace set by Call of Duty: Black Ops. How much more can this IP go before it runs out of steam? Not anytime soon, it seems.