Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has broken the 5 day sales record across all types of entertainment.
Modern Warfare 2 came out the gates hard when it broke the single day record with an astonishing 4.7 million units sold in the US and UK alone. Now Activision has announced it has officially become the biggest entertainment launch ever, pulling in an estimated $550 million in the first 5 days. This pulls it ahead of the former winner, GTA 4 with an estimated $500 million in its first week. This also puts it ahead of the biggest worldwide movie release which was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which earned $394 million in sales. Modern Warfare 2 also shattered the single biggest book release, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which stacked up $220 million in its first week of sales. Even with all of the controversy surrounding this game it looks like a new bar has been set for all forms of entertainment. This really shines a light on how big video games have gotten.
The LA Times is reporting that Modern Warfare 2 cost between $40 and $50 million dollars to develop. Combine that with the marketing and distribution costs, it puts the total amount at about $200 million dollars. I guess that turned out to be a pretty good investment.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC.
