Activision has announced that the Call of Duty franchise has sold a staggering 250 million copies worldwide since its inception in 2003.
The news comes following the revelation that the latest entry in the military shooter franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, was the biggest-selling game of 2015 by a “wide-margin in both units and dollars.” As previously reported, it was also the biggest entertainment release of last year.
“This also marks the seventh year in a row that Call of Duty has been the #1 selling franchise in North America, according to NPD,” commented Rob Kostich, General Manager for the Call of Duty series.
“In fact, Call of Duty has surpassed 250 million units sold life-to-date worldwide. This achievement is thanks to the amazing experiences created by all of our development teams, and would not be possible without the incredible passion from the Call of Duty community.”
He went on to say that the publishing giant is looking forward to “what’s to come” in the year ahead, presumably referring to the next chapter in the Call of Duty series, which is currently in development at Infinity Ward.
The series currently rotates through three developers: the aforementioned Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch. For the first time in the series, games are given a three-year development cycle due to this shifting between studios, something which wasn’t possible during the earlier days of the franchise.
Call of Duty has seen a number of different story arcs launched within the franchise. Aside from the World War II-based games consisting of Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, and Call of Duty: World at War, there’s also the Modern Warfare series, Black Ops, Ghosts, and Advanced Warfare offshoots. In addition, a number of spin-off titles have also been produced over the years, such as Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and Black Ops Declassified.
While it is unknown what type of Call of Duty Infinity Ward is working on for this year, Sledgehammer Games, who will be making next year’s entry, has said it is aiming for hyper realism in a job ad for the upcoming project.
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