So many hyphens in the headline
Call of Duty— there’s a chance you’ve heard of it — is a pretty big deal. That’s an understated way of putting it. Activision’s war shooter franchise has been a steady hit ever since 2007, with each and every new game racking up a bonkers number of sales. As anyone could’ve guessed, they’ve really added up.
During a recent investors call, Activision has confirmed thatCall of Dutyhas moved past 300 million franchise lifetime sales. There’s no breakdown by individual title or brand, but Activision has launched a new mainlineCall of Dutyevery year since 2005. That’s 14 games in 14 years, most of them gigantic blockbusters.
All that sustained success has putCall of Dutyamong elite company.According to this list, it trails onlyMario,Super Mario, andPokemonin terms of best-selling franchises of all-time. Basically, aside from some Nintendo properties,Call of Dutyis the most popular video game series ever.Grand Theft Autois the closest competitor, at 280 million sales as of Rockstar’s most recent report.
There’s one other claimant to the throne of best-selling franchise, but it comes with a giant probably-disqualifying asterisk. Sega insists thatSonicis at 800 million lifetime sales. However, asthis ResetEra threadhelpfully breaks down, that number is egregiously inflated. It includes nearly half a billion free-to-play downloads, and hundreds of millions from the likes of pachinko and other gambling/amusement machines. That is, uhh, not in the spirit of this list.
So,Call of Dutysits right behind onlyMarioandPokemon. It’s absolutely a view from the top. And one more thing all three of these franchises have in common is that they don’t seem like they’ll lose steam anytime soon. Expect them to keep a tight hold on their spots in the rankings.
The Call of Duty series has sold over 300 million games[Gamasutra]
