Numbers show: The Call of Duty decline looks real

The latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise from Activision Blizzard saw a decline of approximately 14 percent in its first month sales on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, according to the latest retail sales figures from the NPD Group.

[Y_5150]

IT took 4 monkey flipping years! Wow it's time for some great games to be on top for once. Call of Duty is at most GOOD not GREAT.

[Beastforlifenoob]

What does everyone expect? That people will keep buying very VERY similar games ever year for the next 10 years. No it must stop there are three main ways that this can and will end:
1) Call of duty has trash sales, infinity ward goes bankrupt...
2) They make a hell of an improvement and the games start picking momentum
3) They keep going with whatever sales they get

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

But these people like that casual experience of Cod. If Cod doesn't do it for them then EA will make something for them and every other shooter dev who feels they have a chance. Hopefully that audience gives up gaming and gets into movies more..

[rainslacker]

7.4 million people disagree with you. That's still a lot of units to sell through, and you won't see change until it gets down below 2-3 million.

[showtimefolks]

http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...

the media and telecommunications company that ousted its chief executive this week, has decided to seek a buyer for its $8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), a person with knowledge of the situation said.
Should no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-game publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell shares in the market, said the person, who sought anonymity because the plans are private.

even the parent company see the decline coming so while black-ops 2 did new things and actually made genuine changes issue is yearly release games loose their touch after a while.

Beastforlifenoob

do you think next-gen systems may help COD brand? i think if COD makes huge improvements in graphics department and reinvents itself a little bit maybe COD can stay good but if activision thinks that they can keep selling 20 million copies of COD every year than they are wrong.

COD can be like madden but than also expect the sales to be like madden 5 million not 25.

some goes for UBI with AC series

[DARK WITNESS]

I think they have one chance to really put it right.

I think everyone could see it was coming, I could tell just from talking with my friends online.

eventually people are going to feel burntout with the whole yearly thing.. especially when there is hardly anychange at all.

Once you build that into the reputation/identity of a game it will become hard to change peoples outlook towards it.

The funny thing is this is the best cod game since cod4, I mean I would put it at about the same level as MW2. it's way better then MW3 and better then Blops1 in my opinion and I really hated mw3 and blops2 an only thought mw2 was "ok".

My friends all know how much i hated the last few cods so they are really supprised when they see me playing it, but when I tell them it's actually not that bad, they have a hard time seeing it.

having said all that, I have no plans at all to buy season pass or dlc for the game.

I think when next gen starts people will be looking to see if there is a marked improvement in the game. if it just looks like the same old same old they will really start looking for something else.

everything comes to an end eventually though Cod had this gen on lockdown, to the point other publishers were pushing games release dates out of it's way.

finally people are wising up or just getting tired but Activision better do something or it will end up like GH.

[Awesome_Gamer]

Thank God.
GTA V will break it's records next year, believe me.

[yeahokchief]

you noobs really shouldn't speak with such sweeping generalizations. i seem to recall you BEGGING for a dark souls port and a RDR port.

i like consoles for the exclusives, simplicity of use, and longevity of the platform.

i like pc games for pointy clicky and strategy games

in the past 3 years i have saved thousands by sticking with a ps3. next generation we'll see what i spend on. i'm probably going to switch back to playing fewer games longer on the pc (notably dota 2) as I will probably not want to spend absurd amounts of money on first generation consoles. imo it is better to buy the 2nd generation or later models for cheaper because they do design improvements and upgrades except for the ps3 which took away backwards compatibility and much needed usb slots.

[Knight_Crawler]

This article is pointless.

I do not play COD but my lil bro and all his friends do and they said from Black Ops 1 that are not buing Black Ops becuase Modern Warfare is the best - When the new Modern Warfare is release and it flops then you can publish this article but I can bet you my entire life savings that the new MW will break records.

Plus people are fogetting that Black Ops was up against Halo 4 which is a beast on Xbox.

[GraveLord]

Sorry to poop on your party but Black Ops 2 had 1 less week in November than MW3 did....so yeah that's the reason for the "decline".

Back in your pants.

[T3MPL3TON]

... one less week in a month makes no difference you foolish child. Sales are sales. It's less than the previous game. Less time doesn't affect the sales seeing as most of these purchases were made on pre-order. Less people bought the game. Simple as that.

[Zichu]

@T3MPL3TON

Yet it made $100m more than MW3. Activision are probably more interested in how many more dollars gets into there pockets.

[cee773]

you guys realize it is on the the decline no matter how you put because it had an extra platform this year the wii u meaning less pcps360 gamers purchased the game and even the new platform the wii u couldn't help with the slack wii u is only attaching to 1.2 gamers per console and 9x out of 10 is mario or zombie U so yes it is indeed a fact that COD is on the decline I mean yea it generated 100mil more but that includes elite pack (or whatever its called this time:P)and map packs etc.

[IAmLee]

IT'S ABOUT GOD DAMN TIME.

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

All sales are down on everything.

[LAZL0-Panaflex]

Yeah right, each installment with the exception of mw3 gets better. I still think blackops 1&2, and battlefield3 got the best multiplayer.

[iamlegend9999]

Nice try. I already knew this wasn't going to sell higher because people were being biased right off the bat in the first trailer for black ops. People were saying " black ops 2 sucks because were fighting robots". If it wasn't for the people whining about fighting robots about 20% of the game, it would have sold more.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Yea it's too simple and not really unique.

[Qrphe]

Fatigue was bound to happen.

[Cam977]

Yes it was inevitable but it should go faster!

[LOL_WUT]

It has begun ;)

[Jinkies]

Thank God

You know they in the North tell of a special legend that after 5 to 6 yearly cycles, when the sun passes the moon 3 times and the planets perfectly aligne that future gamers will start buying high quality games that deserve to be bought instead of COD.

As I said, so far, it's just a legend...past down from me to me

[Tetsujin]

The only thing CoD is good for is birth control among teens, ugly people, and is a good babysitter for parents who need that "alone time."

[Jinkies]

For me COD is like the mordern gimmick in todays world. Remember how people used to play with Conkers in school and it was a thing everyone did if you didn't do it you were "uncool" then came things like Pokemon Cards or Crazy Bones which did one over it...and so on, well COD is basicaly a new type of gimmick which is so high up and so morden tec wise that nothing else can beat it, nothing new can come and take it's place. Pokemon Cards were outdone by Digimon, then Yugi Oh and so on but really it was the same gimmick (cards) just it differnt form, thats why you see many copies of COD because other developers think they can outdo it and people will move onto their franchise....obviously it's not working though

It's like if you don't buy COD your out of the loop, the social crowd whether it's at school, Uni or work. Thats the real reason people buy it, not because it's good, the amount of friends I have who don't play on games but buy it because everyone else does.

[Tetsujin]

That's what I put in another post, the majority bought it only because someone else either suggested it, to "fit in," or because they "had to." I'm glad the game is declining in sales so Activision has no choice but to either step up their game and bring something new or find another franchise to milk to death.

As far as gimmicks go, I remember in the mid 90's those pogs the kids used to play with; I was more into Sega Genesis/SNES, Pokemon didn't really hit it off here till after I graduated High School in 2000. Hell I remember the early 90's with Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre and how "cool" it was to act like you was in a gang, oh and you can't forget saggin pants.

Edit:
@Disagrees, if you're gonna disagree at least have the balls to say why.

[XboxInnovation]

After BO1 I was burnt on CoD. I got MW3 and played maybe 30 hours worth online and was bored to death. Have not touched BO2.

[Cerberus29]

That's pretty much exactly how it played out for me. Loved COD 4, thought WaW was ok, MW2 was fun for about a weak until everyone started using all the exploits and unbalanced weapons, Black ops 1 was ok but I was gettin burnt out on COD (really military shooters in general), I liked MW3 more than I thought I would considering how much I hated MW2, but again got burnt out pretty quick. And then we have Black ops 2, I didn't buy this one but my brother did, and after beating the campaign in less than 5 hours and trying the multiplayer for a couple hours I can tell you you made the right choice passing on this one.

[hardcorehippiez]

i have bought all the cods except for mw3 and the quality of each stepped down in my opinion. however black ops 2 is better than all of the others except for the first modern warfare so this time im glad i bought it. i think it is an improvement that has come too late however too many people have been burned and activision deserves the slump in sale for the amount they have milked this franchise

[jakmckratos]

Good?

[Riderz1337]

While it is slowing down I don't think we should be celebrating yet. 7.4m.... =(

[MariaHelFutura]

Yep, they're stopping development on the next one as we speak.....

[BanBrother]

I have never seen people so hell-bent on seeing a franchise run into the ground.

I'm not even a CoD fan, I don't own any of them. But people need to grow a pair and find different games to play, instead of bitching about CoD all day.

7.4m in 2 weeks?? That's more than Sleeping Dogs and Darksiders 2 will get in life-time sales combined. Much more.

While I would like to see more innovation from the CoD series, I moved on long ago. Maybe some other people should to.

[retrofly]

Well said BanBro, I've been saying this for years, people need to get on with their lives.

Imagine with we all put in so much effort in to bitching and crying about every game we didn't like.

Its crazy TBO, if I'm not interested in a game I just dont pay it attention.

[Shadonic]

I agree with BanBro but honestly after being asked every year from half my friends list that bro you need to spend that 60+ bucks for zombies or that everyone else is getting it idk that gets kind of annoying.

[rainslacker]

That's why I have no friends. :) Either that or because I just hate everyone for no particular reason....hard to say.

[lilbroRx]

Wait, wasn't MW3 the game they claimed pointed to a decline?

[jmc8888]

It's all about how the numbers are set up.

Say like housing. When banks take short sale repos off the market, the regular ones are the only ones that sell, so the 'average' price goes up, even if the regular ones are declining in price.

For THIS, notice they said 'first two weeks'. So there's 'total sold', and 'sold in first two weeks', 'sold in first 48 hours', and really however you want to quantify it time wise.

So you have BLOPS2 being the biggest grossing over the first 48 hours, or weekend or whatever. But less over two weeks than last year.

MW3 had the biggest at that time grossing over the similar timeframe as well, but overall it sold less than Black Ops.

So what you can infer is that the people that want it, are buying it at launch and fewer people are buying it later.

Of course the breakdown in the article also is about '360 and PS3 only', so there's no PC or Wii U sales figured in, or previous year's PC's.

Since these are smaller markets, and with the Wii U, came out later and since it just launched a far smaller amount Wii U's to sell the game to, I don't believe the answer would change if included.

It's all how you classify it. In life, things are classified to tell you what they want you to think. Everyone needs to read between the lines to figure out things like this or unemployment, or inflation, or even something simple things like groceries on sale or same price groceries but only 4/5th's as big.

Confusing the masses is a profitable scam, it's the only industry we have left.

[legendof117]

Well said. Every word you said was true.

[ZombieKiller]

BanBrother is right, we need to stop hating COD. It does suck year after year but the best thing we can possibly do to make it go away is to ignore it. it will either go away and rethink its strategy, or die out with a small whimper and maybe a lil fart.
but all this hate actually attracts attention to it and draws people in. people that dont care and will buy 'whatever' game....and that whatever game is always COD due to all the attention. I dont mind COD but I REALLY DO HATE how much this game is milked. year after year they give us an incomplete game, that finally only works somewhat good when youre already sick of it. then slaps you in the face with DLC and the other half of the game. thats not normal, i hope it does go away and comes back 4 years later with a humble non 'bro' attitude, a COMBINED Treyarch/Raven/SludgeHacker/IW team, A FREAKIN BETA FFS, and maybe a lil consistancy in netcode/dedicated servers considering 1 billion earned huh? Damn its nice to dream though

[rainslacker]

I doubt it would make much difference if we ignored it. The majority of gamers do not frequent gaming sites where we complain about these things. COD is marketed like crazy, it has a huge following, and from what I've seen or heard of them they are pretty decent games.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Maybe this will trigger a major upgrade to the engine, writing, gameplay and...... box art. Who am I kidding Activision will never upgrade the box art until the IP is dead

[andibandit]

Dont expect too much, right now im just expecting diffrent art on the next box cover.

[ZombieKiller]

...all in all I'd love to see the die out with a whimper and fart. Just like a lil' squeaker or something just to sound pathetic.

[Starbucks_Fan]

Wouldn't it make sense to say that Halo 4 is one of the reasons for the decline? Millions bought that game too in one month.

[ALLWRONG]

Yeah but logic doesn't work here.

+1 for getting it.

[mcstorm]

I agree. I think Halo had had a hit on the BO2 sales. I have not got a COD games since MW2 because I was not interested in them but I have decided to get BO2 for the WiiU as I want to see what its like with a FPS game as ZombieU is not quite a FPS game and it will also show me what the WiiU online is like. I still have Halo 4 to fall back on though as so far its the best FPS MP game ive played this gen.

[CaptCalvin]

It really isn't fair that MW3 got the most sales. It's the worst one.

[nevin1]

I wonder what does this mean going into gen?

I mean GTA ruled the PS2 era while COD ruled this gen.

Will COD still rule next gen?

Will GTA Reclaim the throne?

Will they be a new contender?

[Dee_91]

If a GTA came out every year like COD did this gen id bet it would still have said Throne

[JamieL]

I agree, even if it was just DLC like TLAD, BOGT, I would eat it up. There is so much they could do with the GTA cities, so many stories could be told. The thing is they couldn't put together one of these cities every year, but I would like it if they had more DLC, as far as I'm concerned they have the best DLC I've ever bought. I mean Rockstar in general, the RDR DLC included.

[QuodEratDemonstrandm]

As much as I like GTA, particularly the PS2 generation, I'm hoping for a new contender. No one should be #1 forever.

[Heavenly King]

If they are great why not?

[chazjamie]

im sorry but gta is doing pretty well by itself. there is no throne to claim. since the heavy hitters of the previous generation (or pop games as like to refer to) were sports games specifically games like madden and fifa.

Yes, gta was popular back then. But it doesnt come to close to the popularity it has gained on this generation of consoles.

but back to COD. that little franchise has no contender, this is epitomized in their little vita experiment. They so drunk off their own ego, that they believe they in such a powerful position they can release crap like declassified. And look how the vita fanboys defended that trash. Activision can do no wrong, because when they make good games like black ops 2, journalists will love it. When they make trash like declassified on a console with next to nothing sales, the fanboys fall inlove with COD all over again. So no matter what they do no wrong. They satisfy all.

[mikemadden]

Men lie women lie, but numbers don't.

[Riderz1337]

Logic =P

[Agheil]

I don't care about the campaign or the MP or actually the MW series just the ZOMBIES MODE on Black Ops. There is solo much they can do with it :D

[V0LT]

COD went downhill to me personally after they ditched the old school world war feeling.COD 2/3. It has also created this fan base that I find very annoying.

[yodawins]

ha

[hiptanaka]

I'm not a hater by any means, but this is good news for the industry. Slower sales of Call of Duty means less money rewarding slight or marginal improvements in yearly, formulaic iterations and money that's more likely to reward a wider array of genres and REAL creative efforts from other developers.

[JeffGUNZ]

I just don't understand your viewpoint. People continue to buy COD because they nailed the formula. Why on earth would they change the fundamentals of COD when it is so widely popular? Next generation we will get the graphics boost, but what else do you really expect for them to do to make it better? The blueprints of the game is what makes it successful. Most COD fans just want some additions and tweaks here and there to spice it up. If they really try and change to formula and it is less exciting then it is now, then they buried themselves.

[DJ]

those numbers mean nothing. 7.4 million is a LOT of units.

[Playstation4LyFe]

Thank god!! hope its down to 4 Million next year, then 1 million after that, then all the way down to 1 sale!! POOR OLD COLD OF DOOTY, I miss War of the worlds and modern warfare 2 great card games... great card games for a casino better! 5 tokens pleasE!!! and some Beer for my buddy pete here, thanks for the time we had together cod! black ops 2 is dead as hole

[mynameisEvil]

I've lost a quarter of my brain cells because of this comment...

Thanks, "as hole."

[V0LT]

COD is almost becoming like Madden

[Shadonic]

almost ?

[Nunchez]

Stupid Activison CoD was once a great franchise. Now once the sales become lower and lower they have only themselves to blame. Unless they make some crazy changes which I think is highly unlikely.

[JeffGUNZ]

The only thing Activision needs to do is stop having IW do any work on COD. Since the big names left for Respawn, their games have shown little to no effort and the balance issues are pathetic. Treyarch has taken over with real innovation since Black Ops.

[fresh2death93]

Yep i actually am getting tired of call of duty , il go on now and then but it gets old very quickly , its not totally the gameplay it self , they need new gamemodes , because i have been playing the same shit for years. and i like the original zombie better.

[ALLWRONG]

7.4 million isn't too bad considering all the competition it had. Darksiders 2, MOH, Hitman, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Assassins Creed 3, and Halo 4 are just a few. I don't play CoD games but that is far from failure.

[NewZealander]

COD is just the same every year if you want to play on line play halo 4, takes up my spear time and all my friends play it as well, played black ups 2 for a day, I hired it to see if id like it and was going to buy, but after playing for a day it got boring, so I was glad I did not waste my money buying it, im back to playing halo 4 on line and its been out for a month now and don't see my self putting it down any time soon. big infinity slayer anyone?

[JeffGUNZ]

How are they the same every year? MW3 to Black Ops 2 is a completely different feel. The improvements and additions from MW3 to Black OP2 is incredible. Perhaps try playing it for more then a day with an open mind and you might realize how much more indepth it really is.

[Sykoticz]

LOL 'Indepth'

[Sykoticz]

Alot of people wont buy Black ops because its a treyarch game 3 of my mates wont buy it but they will buy mw3 and mw2.

So to me these numbers mean nothing (to me anyway) not just because of what i said but because they need like maybe 1-2 more future releases of CoD to show a decline in sales not just a one off.

I have to admit i did get the game but im thinking about trading it in because i like Bf3 more.

[Xenomorph]

It might have to do with Infinity Ward being 100x better developer than Treyarch. The game is still riddled with bugs, texture popping and horrible spawns.

[PS4isKing_82]

Thank god. Now maybe the great japanese devs will stop trying to emulate it so much and go back to what made their games so great during the ps1 and ps2 days. Now hopefully resident evil will start returning to its roots as well as final fantasy and other once great franchises that have been tainted by the cod germ.

[Heavenly King]

They still need to step their game up. If I still wanted to play PS1/PS2 games I would not have bought a PS3. Japanese companies need to get better, they are trapped in the previous generation, and some are trying to imitate COD, either way, most of Japanese games this gen suck.

[creized1]

Let the games begin >:)

[Triggytrolls]

I'm still playing Battlefield 3.

[insomnium2]

Me too :) Just got myself up to lvl 38 and I'm so proud of myself.

[dan_chan89]

I'm still waiting for Carl of Duty Black cops 2.

[iNathan]

damn

[frankiebeans]

well if im any proof i waent from playing call of duty all day everyday till BLACK OPS 1 THEN thats when it was kinda getting old for me I got Mw3 played it for about a month or 2 and now I havent event got or will be getting BLACK OPS 2.

the quality of the game has declined but they added features but the gameplay is not what it once was.

[knocknock]

MW3 killed the series by being a turd within a turd a new low even for COD.

[josephayal]

i seem to be finding myself getting bored playing this game

[spinbot_lv1]

the decline is inevitable because the single player campaign sucks hard. If activision believe that he can release the same game every year selling it at 60 bucks only for the multiplayer they are very stupid.

[Excalibur]

I bought it this year but I've only played about half of the campaign, I have several friends that passed all together.

I will be passing next year, it's too much of the same old same old.

[bobshi]

Don't get too excited.

It was released later than before and hasn't been out a full month yet.

[PeZuS]

12 days for Blops II vs. 19 days for MW3. That's one whole WEEK of sales that MW3 benefitted from, and considering CoD can sell millions in a week, I'd say that's the biggest factor here by far.

[IGW_Fobia]

Hate to say it...but this really doesn't mean anything yet.

You need to have more than one occurrence of something to prove a trend has started.

Plus...IF these numbers are true, then why did Blops 2 reach the $1 billion mark quicker than MW3 did? Both games retailed for the same price so...
http://www.ign.com/articles...

[jetpacksheep]

To be fair Black Ops 2 is probably the most ambitious in the series and I'm really enjoying it. I'm on my second play through of the story and already the payer choice element has made the story different second time round, the multiplayer is still great, with fast action and a great "pick 10" loadout system, then you have zombies. It also looks great on PC maxed out.

[isyourhouseonfire]

As the franchise that BUILT gaming, I highly doubt COD is in any sort of decline.

[CanadianTurtle]

I told myself I would never buy another game with IW or Treyarch's name on it after playing Black Ops 1 and MW3.

Now the only thing that is left is Call of Duty: Skateboarder from the Tony Hawk developers.

[Holeran]

Black Ops II is the best COD to come out since Modern Warfare came out years ago.

[JeffGUNZ]

Exactly. This one actually takes skill. I would go 34-12 on like every MW3 match. This game you need to really think how you want to play and you need to really think how to build your class to optimize your play style. This game is the best since COD4/

[Knightofelemia]

I rented the game and honestly the PS3 version was broken. The game felt rushed the ending sucked. The story travels from past to future. I just felt I would put my cash to a game like Epic Mickey 2 and a few other titles. My fave COD games will always be COD 4 and World at War are my fave titles out of the COD series. Now to get my hands on Halo 4.

[Tzuno]

I stooped at mw3.

[MasterD919]

Bad level design, horrible servers and slight game tweaks aren't going to keep anyone playing.

[listenkids]

BF3? I agree, EA are renowned for having the worst gaming servers in history, better call Pipex.

[Fakdafakinfakerz]

360 fanboys told me that the PS3 version sucks donkey balls so I didn't get it... Thanks for the advice guys.

[Jason143]

honestly this series makes gamers bad. the heavy auto aim assist is a bad feature. they can turn this series around by simply disabling it. jump onto any pc version and throw in a controller and tell me your a pro lol I went with the pc version this yr and am having more fun with it. Im more of a battlefield man but the fast pace is good from time to time.

[Kidmyst]

I play BF3 and COD on PC and don't buy the consoles versions so maybe others do too but according to these stats it's just leveled off and with the economy with less spending overall it's not a surprise. But per these numbers the game sells millions more than it did versions prior and a 14% drop will not cause the COD franchise to die. If it drops more with each game then yes it could die. Nothing different than Halo in the sense that gamers who like it play for fun with friends and not about the storyline and re-hashing the games.

[listenkids]

OH THANK THE LORD, PRAISE THE HEAVENS FOR SUCH A THING.

Why give a fuck? It won't change shit, just stop fucking whining about everything, you bads.

[SOULJER]

Noooooo......WAIT. It's the Call of Duty. It break all kind of records. Come on man the guns, the acting , the ending. WAIT. The media says it the best COD ever. How could this happening. WAIT. Could this chart be wrong. Someone is lying. WAIT. COD Fan boys. My brothers break your piggy, banks beg your parents, sells your sisters, and buy COD. LOL. we can bring up these numbers WAIT Damn you HATERS. Come on man help us. PLEASE. LOFL 2funny My nephew COD X-box fan boy a$$ is over here crying. LMAO.

[onandonandon]

Can't believe the best one (COD4) sold the least!!

[JonnyBigBoss]

I covered this almost a month ago and people called me a liar and even said I made up the numbers. Lol...

[Megaton]

Oh, it ONLY sold 7 million in its first month. That's ONLY more than the lifetime sales of the other 99.9% of all games ever made.

[Bigkurz85]

amen.

[isyourhouseonfire]

Yes, instead of - dominating - the industry, Call of Duty has declined to more a - crushing - the industry status.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Depespite COD's staleness as a game and fad to (for good right mind you) to really hate cod I have to say this.

From a industry point of view, Cod is important. Cod put Video Gaming entertainment on the map this generation. The same way Mario did nearly 30 years ago, which many considered a brand new age of Video Gaming Entertainment. The mid 90's and early 00's were the darkest days of the game industry.

Games getting bashed and bashed on end none stop. Rockstars* GTA constantly under fire from main stream Media. Main stream started to blame video games for lack of exercise blaming games for violence across the nation and kids (still do).

Now kids can choose if they want to be overweight while gaming. They have options like Move, Kinect and Wii. Cod made video gaming alive and mainstream, and what it is today. So I do thank Cod for a positive outlook in gaming, and made it something that anybody can get into now.

So Video Gaming Entertainment is doing well thanks to Cod.

[Bigkurz85]

Man are you haters SERIOUSLY making fun of COD "only" selling 7.4 MILLION COPIES? Are you nuts? lol

just get over it. a bunch of us like the COD games. period. stop crying already.

[PhunnyJesta]

Only ever owned black ops 1 and 2 of the COD series but I have to say black ops 2 was their best game yet. I can kinda understand how people can be getting sick of series if they played every game since mw1 but from only owning blops 1 and 2 and playing bits and pieces of the other games I really enjoyed blops 2 the most

[MaverickStar7]

I'm not going to put a lot into the Halo 4 theory since the year prior BF3 was released two weeks ahead of MW3. It might account for a little, but not the 14% decline. But what I will put stock in is the fact that MW3 came out on Nov. 8, and BO2 was Nov. 13. 23 sales days versus 18. And sooner or later fatigue and the state of the industry/economy have to play factors as well. No one single reason is responsible.

[deletingthis34675334]

About time. I knew Call of Duty is just a fad all along and would eventually decline. It happened with WoW, it happened with Guitar Hero (to the point Activision canned the IP) and now it is happening with CoD. Milking the franchise with annual installments with marginal changes is a perfect way to ruin a franchise. There are SOOOOOOOOO many games out there that dare to be different and offer much more content for your dollar but this piece of crap had to steal the spotlight this entire generation. I think next generation will have much less sappy American military shooters flooding the market because the franchise developers so strive to compete with is going down the toilet. Activision is probably my least favourite publisher and I hope the next generation won't get dominated by their stupid Skylanders garbage.

[DanielRCampbell]

If anything, this is a comment on the quality of MW3 than it is Black Ops 2. That, and you can't call ONE GAME difference a "trend".

[DivineHand125]

You guys are grasping for straws. This article is irrelevant because it doesn't look at the whole picture. All it does is cherry pick the facts that supports their argument and ignore the rest.
Just because the first month sales for the ps3 and 360 versions have declined compared to the previous year doesn't mean it is selling less overall. If i recall correctly, black ops 2 was also released on the wiiU and i know many core gamers went out and bought it with a copy of black ops 2.
This author of the article conveniently left out the wiiU version sales to support the idea that the sales have declined without showing conclusive evidence. You guys need to stop hating on COD just because it is popular and go back to enjoying life.