Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Call of Duty: Black Ops was popular. 23 million units popular, that is. Activision revealed in an analyst call last night that last year's addition to the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops, surpassed all previous games in the sales department, shifting over 23 million retail units (as opposed to MW2's 19 million), along with 18 million map packs, helping Activision's digital revenues hit $1.7 billion for the 12 month period ending June 2011.

And they expect those figures to grow even more with Modern Warfare 3 thanks to an even bigger potential market.

"There's plenty of runway this year, with 20 percent-plus expected growth in the HD console install base alone," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO at Activision.

Check out the sales chart below to see just how much the franchise has grown since World at War:

[via Joystiq]