Black Ops sold over 23 million units and over 18 million map packs in first nine months

There are quite a few folks with either an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Just over 23 million, in fact, as of numbers tallied following the first nine months of sales by its publisher. Activision revealed as much during an analyst call this afternoon, showing continued sales growth for the Call of Duty franchise versus install base numbers for the two HD consoles combined.

[LOGICWINS]

Guess that means map pack prices will go up now that Activision knows that theres is a huge demand for them.

[fluffydelusions]

Doubt it. They catch enough shit for the current pricing model. Can't picture them being bold enough to raise it even more but then again...

[-Alpha]

The price has never been different to the content.

For 3 maps they charged $10
For 5 maps they charged $15

If they were to raise the price to $20, then they'd include 2 more maps.

Even though $15-$20 for DLC in the timespan of one year for like 4 DLC packs sounds expensive for most gamers, a lot of people just play COD exclusively and Activision is going to ride that pony until the end.

[theonlylolking]

In W@W you got 4 maps for $10.

[aGameDeveloper]

In Soviet Russia, maps got YOU.

[M_Prime]

lol @aGameDeveloper

well said man

[Ares84]

I'm guilty in buying Map packs!!! Now I only buy them for the zombie map. I wish they would sell that separately but they won't since no one would buy the other maps by themselves.

As for MW3, I will not buy it so I will not buy any of it's DLC either.

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

Speaking of map packs, it's funny all these COD killers don't even provide half the content that COD provides to their fans.

[DaTruth]

My friends hardly play games and practically never play online! I think I would buy almost any game if my friends would play with me online!

I have friends who would surf through random Facebook profiles for hours and barely play their consoles! I know there's no accounting for taste, but WTF!

[flankhim]

Take that BF FAN BOYS!

[jeseth]

From the point of a PS3 gamer that doesn't pay for online play...

COD and its map packs are not very expensive when you break it down. I know COD is not for everyone on this site but I put over 20 days into MW2 online with my friends. I paid $60 bucks plus $30 for map packs... so $90 bucks for 480 hours of gaming.

Thats 18 Cents and hour! Where else can you entertain yourself for 18 cents an hour?

I know people hate on COD and it is deserving of criticism, but I do enjoy it with my friends and we have fun. So a $90 dollar investment for that kind of replay is worth it. Especially when I'll also by awesome SP games like God of War and inFamous and be done with the campaign in 12 hours or so. So to me its just all a convenient way to take cheap shots at COD.

[bakasora]

Increase the game to $120, hardcore COD fan will still buy it.

[iamnsuperman]

possibly. I think the best way is to up it by 5 but add something small to make it seem like a better deal. In a way the amount of map packs releasing or Black Ops hints at same price but more frequent map packs

[LOGICWINS]

"Doubt it. They catch enough shit for the current pricing model"

No, the "shit" you hear predominantly occurs on the Internet within informed gamer hubs such as N4G. Given the 18 million map packs sold in the first nine months, its pretty obvious that not too many people in the outside world are bitching about the price.

[raWfodog]

This is what I keep trying to get across to people who wonder why publishers keep releasing the 'same game' year after year. If there is an obvious demand for the game and tons of people keep buying it, why wouldn't you keep putting it out?

That's common business sense, old supply and demand at work. In no way is this stating Sales = Quality. It just means a lot of people wanted to play a familiar game that they enjoyed.

[gamingdroid]

I don't even see an issue with the entire thing of releasing the same thing (although I disagree that it isn't the same thing).

One could almost argue that all shooters are the same thing or heck, that all video games are the same thing. They all work on a screen don't they for entertainment?

If people want it, let them have it.

It really is an elitist attitude.

[sikbeta]

Market is definitely there, so they can exploit it the way they want, by looking at these numbers, they pretty much has covered the FPS market-field and will do until COD loss its "charm" or whatever it is that makes +20m people buy the damned games, the same way Capcom kind of found a market for their Super-Ultra-Gold rehashes with added content compared to their normal releases, kind of the GOTY Edition of games, but without being GOTY :P

[jspc1989]

I dunno, perhaps it's my age (and i'm only 22), but just recently I seem to be going off FPS's altogether....you can have too much of a good thing. That's not to say they don't look good, i think MW3 and BF3 look very good in both of their respective ways.....but of all the games in my shopping list this fall, neither of these are one of them (and I have a pc capable or running BF3).

Funnily enough aside from my Ultimate Metal Gear Solid HD collection my two other most anticipated games are Skyrim (shocking eh!) and Catherine.

But back to the article, those are some immense numbers! There maybe people who don't like Activision as a publisher and may dislike the CoD games, but noone can deny they're obviously doing something right! And i'm not self righteous enough to be telling people how to spend their time - everyone's entitled to do what they enjoy!

Only thing that bugs me and it's quite a major thing is, the stereotype CoD player is the 13 year old boy running his mouth (don't flame me, i only said the stereotype not all or even the majority) - and most of the CoD games are 16+....i've never seen such group ignorance of an age rating of any product anywhere else! It's CoD so noone bats an eyelid lol.

[DaTruth]

Me too! I have own both Resistance games and am not even anticipating the third game! On top of that, I can't even play through the campaigns again, and I play all my games multiple times!

I just feel burnt out on FPS's, like the whole format isn't doing it for me anymore and developers can't seem to find anything new to do with it!

I'm almost turned off of Skyrim, just because it's in the first person! Maybe I'll hold out until I get a capable PC and there's a third person mod!

[ForTheFallen]

"obviously doing something right"
Popular? Surely. Right? Debatable.
What do you call it when a product has a stranglehold on a market and uses that influence to force people to pay higher prices for something that they shouldn't have to pay that much for?
Oh yeah, a monopoly. A manipulative, greedy monopoly.

[jspc1989]

@ForTheFallen - The issue is in this example there are ALOT of alternatives. Noone is forcing anyone to pay for anything, people are doing it because they want to, not because they don't have a say in the matter.

And popular for the general masses may not equal good for you or I, but it obviously does for them, as they're the ones that keep buying it, and i'm sure when they're finally sick of it, they will stop buying it. I know alot of people who game casually who buy it, and they're far from being idiots.

[2v1]

THIS GAMEis like $57 use at game stop and has been like that since release.....Patcher is right mw3 will sell more than bf3.10 to 1 ratio

[zeddy]

this wont happen again, black ops is horse shit and i'll never trust treyarch with a game again.

[StanLee]

Dude, give it a rest. Say you wont buy another Call of Duty game and you know what, you're the minority. I heard the same silliness before Black Ops was released about Modern Warfare 2. You wont buy it, cool, not need to tell anyone else your sob story.

[ATi_Elite]

and Zeddy is posting this from his tent while camped out in front of Best Buy with a sign that reads.....

"I'm gonna be the first kid on my block with a MW3 Kill"

j/k

[KRUSSIDULL]

I only buy the standalone game for 40$ on the supermarket on release. I know there is a CoD next year more worth waiting for that than buy map packs.

[sak500]

@DaTruth

That's no excuse. I've made quite few friends while playing online games. Either they like my gaming skills and add me or prob hate me for pawning them and then they ask to friend me. Whatever LOL.

If your current friends dont share the same hobby you can have more friends who do :D

OT: I only bought one map pack for MW2 and never again. Had bought before for BF2142 and BF2 though on PC.

[DA_SHREDDER]

you pay for the map packs? lmao!

[Godmars290]

And this why we will only see more overpriced map packs: because they make money and people are stupid enough to buy them.

Edit:
And as someone not into COD, I have to deal with a market that carters to it more and more.

[iamnsuperman]

Stupid or the only thing they want to play. I can see if all you want to do it play COD with your friends buying these map packs isn't so bad. They miss out on so many games but these people are happy enough to have a session after school/work and that is all they have time for and that is all there friends do

[raWfodog]

So you assume that everyone who bought the maps only plays COD and no other games...

Huh?

So with that same reasoning, are you saying that buyers of DLC only play that game for which they bought the DLC? I'm trying to understand the reasoning in your comment.

[Chocoboh]

speaking of buying map packs to play with friends you can actually share the map pack download cost or w/e with your friends and share it with them

I've done it with a few games now

[-Alpha]

Don't blame the rest of the market for COD. As annoying as it is to see COD be so huge and do so little, it doesn't mean that you can't completely ignore it.

If other devs are trying to be like COD, that's not Activision's fault. What annoys me more than COD's silly success is devs who try to be like COD and then fans who decide to blame COD instead

[sikbeta]

Exactly, devs can't go against COD, devs can't share the COD success by making their own FPS trying to be like COD, it's like the third party support on the wii, every dev tried to replicate Nintendo games to achieve the same success, FAILED, moved to the HD consoles and start chasing COD sales by making military-based FPS games, FAILED ... now, moving to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to replicate Angry Birds success and we all know how its gonna end :P

[iNMyFiN4LH0uR]

why is CODs success "annoying" or "silly"?

[raWfodog]

Yeah, I'm not understanding how people are 'stupid' for buying a product that they obviously want. I'm sure you have made some purchases in your life that others wouldn't but no one could call you stupid for it. You had the money and it was something you wanted, right?

[gamingdroid]

Well said!

In fact, quality is pretty subjective when it comes to games and calling others "stupid" for buying something is rather immature in my opinion.

[Skateboard]

I just buy the game not the DLC.

[TheRag]

YES!! Thank you!!!
seems like we're a dying species.. :x

[allyc4t]

And this is why Activision releases a new CoD every year. It's easy money.

[nitrogav]

I was`nt one of the 23 million !!

[MasterCornholio]

Impressive but no big surprise.

[Fishy Fingers]

Yep, they got their money out of me, every DLC map pack. But then, I have over 450 hours in Black Ops, so really, thats pretty damn good value for money.

To each their own. A concept many seem to struggle with.

[Organization XII]

Not a good way to spend 450 hours I tell you, you could have learned to play an instrument or banged chicks with that amount of time which i think is pretty ridiculous, whatever it's your life people.

[dangert12]

Gaming is playing an instrumental the sweet tone when you have unlocked a trophy or purchased for the ps store the patterns from the clicks of the button presses the menu effects sweet music to my ears cod though lol halo sfx are realistics then cods cods sound like something else ill get back to you when i know what they sound like its just not bullets and skulls

[silvacrest]

i agree but i think your thinking of that 450 hours in a lump while its more likely spread quite a bit

assuming he bought it in november thats 450 hours over 10 months

in comparison, watching 1 hours worth of TV a day for 10 months would equal many more hours but i bet we all exceed that without anyone making "your wasting your time" comments

just my thoughts

[evrfighter]

Get if you can get 450 hours out if a game it's easily justified. But from what I've seeing from the cod faithful here at work and my 9th grade brother and his friends that play cod religiously is that blackops is boring and they can't wait for bf3.

Only because they know they'll be crashin at my place for the weekend and enjoying bf3 in all it's glory as I keep my lan up to date for gaming.

I have blackops on my lan but their game of choice when they come over is bc2. I think slot of people are going to suprised

[zeddy]

i wish i could put all those cod hours into education but its not as easy as it might seem. i wish they would make a game to teach me maths or something and make it as appealing and as addictive.

[postofficebuddy]

The hell? The HD console install base wasn't 74 million back in December. It was almost 100 million.

[meetajhu]

23mill where shafted including me :/

[Sevir04]

>_> this is just sad!

[Raven_Nomad]

We'll see more sales then this for Modern Warfare 3. My guess is 26 million and probably 20 million map packs sold.

Battlefield who?

Also, I find it a bit humorous that Black Ops sold more map packs then both Bad Company games sold combined. That's a lot of growth in a short period of time. It's obvious people dig the COD.

[Skateboard]

Hell yeah, I dig the COD.

[TheRag]

BF:BC2 had so many FREE map packs for those who pre-ordered the game so we didnt need to buy new maps.. only one i remember people actually paid for was Vietnam but that was A HUGE addition to the game..

correct me if im wrong, but thats what i remember...

[MostJadedGamer]

That is totally, and complete false. No way in the wold can MW3 outsell Black Ops. Battlefield 3 is going to take a HUGE chunk out of MW3 sales. I predict MW3 will sell 8 million less then Black Ops. dropping from 23 million to 15 million sales.

Having such a strong competior like BF3 will be very, very, very bad for MW3, and the COD franchise in general.

[IM_A_NINJA]

No offense, but didn't we hear that when Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2 released? Same with Medal Of Honor? The Call Of Duty games have had steady growth with each game, the fact that Call Of Duty is heavily marketed towards console owners also helps them greatly.

Don't forget, Dice/EA is marketing BF3 mostly as a PC game. Now I'm withholding judgement on the game itself until I play it on a console, but it'd be a pretty ignorant statement to say Battlefield 3 is going to take anything from COD. Since they are marketed towards different types of players. I don't know many COD gamers who would like or be good at BF games and vice versa.

[MostJadedGamer]

"No offense, but didn't we hear that when Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2 released? Same with Medal Of Honor? The Call Of Duty games have had steady growth with each game, the fact that Call Of Duty is heavily marketed towards console owners also helps them greatly."

No the hype for Battlefield 3 has been a 100 times greater then any other EA game. The situation is not at all comparable. It is quite obvious that the MW3 will have a HUGE drop in sales from Black Ops.

[acquanemesisX]

If this article is about COD, then why did you have all of a sudden mention BF3 and bash it?

[Jack_DangerousIy]

That's what he does. At least on all of the Battlefield articles. Look for him next time you're there. You'll see him.

[MilkMan]

This is pretty sad news.
Considering its like buying the game twice.
Except one time you get the a full game experience (if that's your thing) and the second time around, with all these map packs you pay another $60 to run around in a maze.

WAY TO GO FOOLS!

[SageHonor]

Its funny because SOOO many people try to hate this game but it sells this much.

[silvacrest]

the people who are hating on this game (me included) are the minority, the majority are just playing (and apparently buying most of the DLC too)

but what they are definitely not doing is reading or commenting on these forums

[MostJadedGamer]

That is not true at all. The vast majority of gamers do NOT play COD.

[TBM]

As popular as this genre is I feel that its stagnanting the industry, its seems that's all these gamers what shooter, shooter, shooter. I only bought 1 map pack and that was back with MW1

[AllroundGamer]

and i bought... none :p but good to see there are a lot of sheep out there...

[GoldPS3]

Ridiculous. How can that many people be so brainwashed for this game? I just don't get it. I played Black Ops one day at my friends house and every match I played had lag switchers, glitchers, and little kids screaming profanity. COD is horrible online.

Anyway I'm sticking with KZ and BF. They have kids too but majority of them are mature. Plus I like bigger maps and riding vehicles.

[mcstorm]

Well looks like there is no stopping the cod name but thats fine for me the more kids that buy cod games the better online expirence the core gamers get on games like halo bf forza gt kz ect. The sad news is cod has hurt alot of other ips as people are playing cod every year and only buying cod games every year.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Those are some insane numbers.

[silvacrest]

jesus.....23 mil? and 18 mil in DLC alone??

this may seem normal to most of you but i dont buy COD iterations, never have, never will, im not against FPS, i loved killzone/resistance but COD just doesnt do it for me

with sales like this...it will never die and acti have little reason to make significant changes, it wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt an annual game...oh well

[bednet]

There are 3 types of gamers...Hardcore, Casual and COD.

[NatureOfLogic]

@silvacrest, Most mature comment I've read in a COD article from someone who doesn't play the game. Bubbles

[silvacrest]

thanks :)

i'll give a bubble back

[V0LT]

I hate DLC.

[Thedudehere]

Why are so many people on this site so worried about how other people spend their money? after a long day of work and kids me and the wife love us some COD! 120 bucks well spent.So you haters can lick my sack!!

[Dart89]

So you're a married man with kids and a wife and you come on here to tell haters to lick you're sack??Wow you're very mature for a grown man SMH.

[Getowned]

so here we have a grown man telling little kids on N4G to lick his sack...Nice,only on N4G.

[jetlian]

people that didn't wanna count that 18 million dlc is worth 270 million

[bloodybutcher]

that is very impressive.i got one cpy of cod bo myself,i didn´t get maps though,not that much into cod´s mp.my gf also lked it(she didn´t play,just watched me playing)

[Getowned]

it's a shame some games don't even make half these numbers like Heavenly Sword,Valkyria Chronicles,and especially Blur it was a great game had tuns and tuns of people in the beta and most people even seemed to like it,more people should buy that game! people still play but it's very under-rated imo http://youtu.be/Agf2-8bFTKY

not that im telling people what to buy,they should play what they want but would it kill people to play some thing outher then cod or a shooter! all the time i like shooters too but damn theres alot of people who mostly only own cod games.

Activision sure is makeing a lot of money tho.

[Chocoboh]

And to this day I still don't find Call of Duty anywheres near remotely fun. For the average human with the attention span of a dog it might be all fun. Running around and shooting people and dying 2 seconds later from the stupid spawning system. Games like BF2-BC2 and Socom(oh how I miss ps2 days) interest me much more. I guess my kind is a dying breed.

[TheFirstClassic]

I'm with you buddy. I like a little more depth in shooters than just running and gunning.

[thawind]

OMG!!!

[skweejal]

And still the game is 60$ and the DLC, still canned goods created before the release of the game. This is stupid people being milked right in front of our eyes and we don't even care. Just shows how lazy our society has become. Would you like more lube with your ass-fucking? Imbeciles.

[TBONEJF]

Black Ops is the top selling FPS game. Every time it's release on their anniversary they sell from 500,000 units during it's first two weeks then a million later on. Still don't know how does Activsion keeps selling and selling every year like this. I try to play Call of Duty bought the Modern Warfare but didn't like it. But Nov is the starting of the Holiday season and of course they have lots of COD fans that would buy it. I heard the last one was very short. So I'm glad I didn't buy the last COD. I'll stick with my Resistance/Uncharted and any other FPS games that's better than COD.

[ginsunuva]

Don't buy this game. If you really want it then rent borrow or trade for it. Don't suport this company.

[XboxInnovation]

Come on Activision, up the map packs to 20 dollars so you kill the franchise faster

[SSKILLZ]

Damn and MW3 is gonna
make a easy $30 mill and $24 mill on DLC plus CoD elite subscribers

[BlueEye]

Just wish they could release zombie maps individually, I don't play Black Ops MP all that much and I'm buying my first map pack soon, the zombie map pack.

[Brownghost]

quantity doestn mean crap ive seen way better games with more quality than cod that barely sell as much as COD

[Der_Kommandant]

My heart just died a little

[GTRrocker]

I hate Activision.

[GTRrocker]

I didn't know there were that many kids with consoles.

[Sarcasmology]

Millions of humans making immoral purchases to distract themselves from real life's problems? No way!!!!

[zeddy]

i bought the ps3 version and one dlc not going to happen again especially with treyarch at the helm.

[Three_Sisters]

With these sales figures...I feel Treyarch will do the same thing Activision did in MW3...

Use the same game engine for way less expense and milk more money out of the customers....

[Platinum_k]

23 MILLION???!!! I thought they sold well, but GEEZ! NEVER thought they would sell that well... O.O

The best selling exclusives for both PS3 and 360 COMBINED isn't even close to it! SERIOUSLY!... too much

Well done COD, well done.

[skyblue14213]

I recently discussed the call of duty series with a friend, and we both agreed that the main reason why we get/have the map packs for both the world at war and black ops cod games is because of the zombie maps.

I have tried the multi-player portion in both the world at war and black ops cod games, and I just don't care for it. I don't care for infinity ward's modern warfare series. Don't get me wrong I do prefer treyarch's cod games over infinity ward's cod games, and the main single player campaigns(in both cod: bo and cod:waw) are action packed.

I do understand some people's disgust with how the series has become stagnated or stale in a way. And I think a big part of why cod:bo is currently the highest sold game in the cod series is mainly because of the zombies portion of the game, the single player campaign is action packed but I think the zombie portion overcome's the single player campaign. The proof of this can be found in the online portion of both cod: waw and cod: bo, if you observe both online portions of each game you will notice that the number of players for the zombie portion greatly outnumber the multi-player portion of both games.

But when it comes to the main #1 reason why I play both cod: bo and cod: waw is mainly for the "zombies" portion of those games, otherwise I would not have much interest in the cod series. If treyarch continues the zombie saga in their future cod games, then I will keep on buying their future cod games and the map packs for the games. But if in the future they decide to not to continue the zombie saga in their future cod titles, then I will stop buying cod games.

I wish that the zombie maps would sell separate from the multi-player maps because I really don't use the multi-player maps, which makes the map packs that I buy a waste except for the zombie map that is included with each map pack.

99.9% of the time I don't buy games at the full $60 price tag, $60 games have to drop at least $20 in price before I consider buying any game because I don't believe any video game is worth $60, especially considering that the greedy dlc business model has went into full bloom this video game generation.

[skyblue14213]

F.Y.I- There is a 50% off sale for select cod series related content this week on psn. I picked up cod classic for $7.50 and I am enjoying the game. I recommend to anyone(like me) that wanted to get the game but was not willing to pay original high price for it, to get the game now because you probably wont see a price this low anytime in the future for the game. Also some map packs and/or map pack bundle(s) for a few cod games are on sale too.

[ATi_Elite]

I wonder who made more cash.....

Black Ops map paks or Team Fortress 2 Hats!!

[nepdyse]

.... http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[hadriker]

Its a horribly predatory business model based on the fact that kids have no qualms with spending their parents money. They are completely unaware of the type of precedent they are setting for future DLC pricing.

[Donnywho]

Black ops has made 1.7 billion dollars. Unless I'm doing the math wrong. Shit's crazy

[Agent_hitman]

and the additional 10 million copies were sold on ps3, that is sh!t port so yeah activision you suck!

[slaton24]

it saids over 23 million units sold but u dont see more than 1million sometimes online most people got disappointed in it and trade it in for bad company 2...me i got black ops and bc 2 and cod itself still has some work to do like connection problems glitches all over the place spawning right in front of the enemy and camping(bc 2 u can destroy houses and trees which gets rid of cover for campers)

[Nunchez]

I feel kinda sad for DICE after all the hard work they put in BF3 MW3 will probably outsell it.

[OooHJohnny]

Shitty game... didn't even finish it... glad didn't pay full price.