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Modern Warfare 3 breaks 5-day record with $775M

The new Call of Duty game easily beats the previous five-day record holder: last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops, which pulled in $650 million.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
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Don Reisinger
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Another day, another record for Modern Warfare 3.
Another day, another record for Modern Warfare 3. Activision

Can anything slow down the Call of Duty franchise?

In its first five days of availability, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 generated $775 million in worldwide sales, helping the game set a new revenue record over that period, Activision announced today. The previous record-holder, Call of Duty: Black Ops, generated $650 million during its first five days of availability last year.

The Call of Duty franchise has now generated a whopping $6 billion in revenue over its lifespan, making it one of the top entertainment properties in the world.

Modern Warfare 3's strong showing comes just days after Activision announced that the game set a new launch-day record, posting $400 million in revenue in its first 24 hours on store shelves.

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The game's success comes despite some concerns from reviewers who say that its formula of highly regarded set pieces and run-and-gun gameplay is starting to get a little old. But even with that caveat, just about everyone can agree it's the top shooter to hit store shelves this year.

"This is an exciting and rewarding game, but the series' signature thrills have lost some of their luster," Chris Watters of CNET sister site GameSpot wrote in a review. "Modern Warfare 3 iterates rather than innovates, so the fun you have is familiar. Fortunately, it's also utterly engrossing and immensely satisfying, giving fans another reason to rejoice in this busy shooter season."

And rejoicing is exactly what gamers are doing. According to Microsoft, a total of 3.3 million unique gamers played the title on Xbox Live for over 7 million hours on launch day, up from the 5.9 million hours they played on Call of Duty: Black Ops' launch day last year.

So, what's next for Modern Warfare 3? All signs point to beating the six-week sales record set last year by Black Ops when it generated $1 billion over that period. And judging by Modern Warfare 3's success so far, it shouldn't have much trouble achieving that goal.