‘Call Of Duty: Ghosts’ First Day Sales Top $1 Billion, Will ‘COD: Ghosts’ Surpass ‘GTA V’ Sales?

Activision has announced “Call of Duty: Ghosts” sales have exceeded $1 billion in its first day of release. The figure relates to sales to retail stores and not consumer sales and the game was released for the PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PC and will be a launch title for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick announced the success of the franchise, “COD: Ghosts” and its predecessor, “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” Kotick said in a statement, “’Call of Duty’ is by far the largest console franchise of this generation. More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II,’ including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year.”

While the $1 billion figure is impressive it is slightly misleading as it represents sales to stores, inventory, and not worldwide sales to gamers. “Grand Theft Auto V” surpassed the $1 billion in global sales after three days, earning a record-breaking $800 million in its first day. The impressive “GTA V” launch sales bested the $500 million in sales generated by “COD: Black Ops II” in 2012.

According to Activision, plenty of people logged in to play “COD: Ghosts” and was a constant trending presence on Twitter during its launch. It is unclear what the actual sales figures are for the latest installment in the “COD” franchise and if it will be the sales for “GTA V.”

Even if the “COD: Ghosts” sales do not break records it will be an impressive haul and its success will be aided by the upcoming launches of two next-gen systems. According to Activision, “COD: Ghosts” is the most pre-ordered game for the PS4 and the Xbox One. Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, said in a statement, "This is the must have launch title for the next generation of consoles, and we expect ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ to be the most successful launch title for the Xbox One and PS4 by a wide margin. In fact, according to GameStop, Call of Duty: Ghosts is their most pre-reserved next gen title."