Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Activision has announced that the latest iteration in their popular military shooter series, Call of Duty: Black Ops, has shattered Modern Warfare 2's five-day worldwide sell-through record, bringing in a whopping $650 million in just five days, around $100 million more than Modern Warfare 2.

"Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment," said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard.  "The title's success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.  The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard's leadership role in online entertainment."

While we don't have an official confirmation on the number of copies sold, if we take the standard retail price of $59.99, Black Ops has likely surpassed 10 million copies. And that's just in the first five days!

Along with breaking records in the real world, Call of Duty: Black Ops also managed a few records on Xbox LIVE:

• More than 5.9 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Black Ops by end of launch day, November 9.
• More than 2.6 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Black Ops in one day on November 9.

Another year, another success for Activision. There seems to be no slowing down for the Call of Duty franchise.