To say Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is a smashing success is something of an understatement. It made $1 billion in its first ten days after release and shows no sign of slowing down. Recently released GSD sales data in Europe for the month of October saw the latest title in the long-running FPS franchise take the top sales spot. It did so well, in fact, that it more than doubled the numbers from Call of Duty: Vanguard.
The news, first reported by GamesIndustry.biz, specified that Modern Warfare II managed a 125% performance improvement over Vanguard in its first two weeks and is about to eclipse the World War 2 shooter’s lifetime sales across European markets entirely. While this year’s Call of Duty is only the third best-selling game of the year, just behind Elden Ring, at the rate it’s going, FromSoftware’s seminal entry in their storied history will be relegated to third place in no time.
Note that total game sales across both digital and physical reached almost 12 million units in October, a figure likely impossible without Modern Warfare II on the docket. It outshone both FIFA 23 and Grand Theft Auto V, though by what margin is unclear. If the above figures are anything to go by, the gap between first and second place is probably fairly large.
Call of Duty marketing leaned heavily into the campaign this year but ensured players still got something to take into multiplayer for playing the single-player offering. We didn’t care for the story of Modern Warfare II but had much better things to say about its multiplayer offering.
It’s still early in this game’s lifecycle, and with Warzone 2.0, DMZ, and Season 01 on the horizon, expect the in-game store to explode with cosmetics and other microtransactions. If Modern Warfare II can do this well without its historically aggressive monetization, the figures once it enables them are likely to be absolutely staggering.
