'Destiny' Reaches $500M In Sales Within 24 Hours, Sets Record For Biggest Such Franchise Launch

The first-person shooter video game “Destiny,” which went on sale this week, booked a record for most initial sales in the first 24 hours of a franchise's debut. The online action title went on sale Tuesday and by Wednesday Bungie had sold $500 million worth of the game to retailers, making it the largest new game franchise launch in history.

“Destiny” was also the most pre-ordered title in history, topping weekly tracking surveys by video game monitoring network VGChartz for nearly six months straight.

"Since the beginning, we've been confident that our investment and belief in ‘Destiny’ would pay off. But not many people believed we'd be able to say it did so on day one," Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision said in a press release. "We have more confidence than ever that ‘Destiny’ will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation and Activision’s next billion dollar brand. Most importantly, it’s just a great game which we can’t stop playing. A big thanks to our incredibly talented team and partners who helped make this happen; most importantly, our partners at Bungie."

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick claimed the sales figure was an “industry milestone” that “marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world.”

"The success of Destiny, along with the recent introduction of Blizzard Entertainment’s ‘Hearthstone,’ is further validation of our unique capabilities to create great entertainment franchises from the ground up,” Kotick said.

Despite its massive success, "Destiny" isn't the most successful game launch of all time. Rockstar's 2013 action-adventure game "Grand Theft Auto 5" reached sales of $800 million when it went on sale. Activision's "Call of Duty: Black Ops" also reached $360 million in sales when it launched, reaching $800 million within five days. However, both of these games were part of established franchises.

“Destiny” went on sale at more than 11,000 midnight openings worldwide, reaching fans in more than 178 countries. The game was available for preloading before Tuesday on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

Bungie ran the title’s beta test in July. When it closed on July 27, more than 4.6 million players had participated in the beta.

“Destiny” will receive its first expansion pack, “The Dark Below,” in December.