Call of Money; Black Ops Hits $1 Billion In Sales

While the video game industry's year has been topsy-turvy at best, Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops has more than held its own.

The popular video game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 has surpassed $1 billion in sales, Activision announced this week. The number represents a level which no other video game has ever reached so soon after release.

In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and Avatar have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly, said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, in a statement. Our ability to provide the most compelling, immersive entertainment experience, and enhance it with regular, recurring content that delivers hundreds of hours of audience value, has allowed Call of Duty to continue to set sales and usage records.

The company announced today that 600 million hours have been logged playing Call of Duty: Black Ops since the game launched on Nov. 9. That's equivalent to 68,447 years. Data from Microsoft says the average player logs on more than once a day and plays for more than one hour each time.

The $650 million sold worldwide in the first five days of its release, was the highest ever for any form of entertainment in that time period. All of the records it is setting now are breaking those of another Activision moneymaker, last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.