Call Of Duty: Black Ops III Racks Up $550M Globally

It's never a surprise when the latest release in the Call of Duty series sells lots and lots of copies, but this year's Black Ops III has set new records. Publisher Activision has revealed that in only the first three days of the game's release, $550 million in sales has been generated worldwide. This makes the FPS the single largest entertainment release of 2015 so far, not only eclipsing the recent release of Halo 5, but even topping this summer's opening weekend of the Jurassic World movie.

But how about comparing Black Ops III's early success with past Call of Duty entries? Activision says that this year's digital sales are almost double that of last year's Advanced Warfare, while retail sales also saw a "significant" increase compared to 2013 and 2014's releases (Ghosts and Advanced Warfare, respectively).

In fact, this is the most successful Call of Duty since developer Treyarch's own Black Ops II, which became the single biggest entertainment launch ever in 2012 with over $500 million in sales in the first 24 hours alone. This record was eventually topped, however, with Grand Theft Auto 5's release in 2013.

As for player activity, Activision noted that over 75 million hours in online play were logged in the first three days, adding up to be more hours per player than any previous Call of Duty title.

SOURCE Venture Beat