Call of Duty: Black Ops is not just the best-selling game of all time, it’s apparently also more addictive than Facebook.
I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg would take issue with that headline, but if you believe Activision Blizzard’s newly-released quarterly earnings report, it’s the truth.
Black Ops’ claim to the “Best Selling Game of All Time” title is nothing new, but the document’s “Business Highlights” section reads like a bullet list of the game’s greatest achievements.
To wit: During the first quarter, Call of Duty: Black Ops “players have spent an average of 58 minutes per day playing online, exceeding the 55 minutes the average user spends per day on Facebook.”
Additionally, Activision Blizzard claims that the game’s playerbase was 33% greater than that of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 during the same stretch of its lifespan, and that the First Strike DLC pack attracted 20% more downloads than MW2’s Stimulus Pack. Incidentally, that First Strike pack also managed to sell a bewildering 1.4 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability on Xbox Live alone.
What does this mean for you, the consumer? If history is any indication, it means you’re in for at least a few more years of Call of Duty sequels, spin-offs and anything else that might be made lucrative by sharing the brand. Activision Blizzard is nothing if not thorough, and if there’s money to be made by serving up military-themed gunplay every year, you better believe that’s what it’ll do.
Published: May 10, 2011 02:08 pm