Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 3 achieved $1bn in 16 days, with the publishing giant pointing out that a film box office record was broken in 2009 by Avatar with $1bn in 17 days.
"The release of Call of Duty has been one of the most significant entertainment events of each of the last six years," said Activision's Bobby Kotick, lounging in a cash jacuzzi.
"Since Call of Duty was launched, cumulative franchise revenues from players around the world are greater than current worldwide box office receipts to date for the top-10 grossing films of 2012 combined," he continued.
"Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars,' the two most successful movie franchises of all time." More than 150 million hours have been racked up by gamers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 online since launch on Xbox Live and PSN since November 12th.
"Entertainment franchises that captivate audiences for as long as Call of Duty has, on the scale that Call of Duty has, are very rare things. And it takes a lot of brilliant people working across many different disciplines to make it happen. It is incredibly humbling and gratifying to be a part of," chipped in Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg.
"In order for Call of Duty to remain the entertainment juggernaut that it is, and keep our fans coming back for more, we need to continue to bring fresh ideas and new innovations to the table every time, while always staying true to what people fell in love with in the first place."
"That's what we did with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and that's what we intend to keep on doing. This is an incredible milestone for an incredible franchise, and I want to thank every passionate, talented, committed person on our team who made it happen," concluded Hirshberg.
Can the Call of Duty franchise keep on rockin' $1 billion every year? Bobby Kotick sure wants to find out, and he'll bet his 7th luxury yacht 'SubsFTW' the Activision vault will see a lot more green bleed from our wallets in 2013.
