Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 had a good launch. But how does it compare to other Call of Duty titles? Activision manages to release success reports without mentioning sales numbers.
This year, Call of Duty is doing things differently. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launched without a single-player campaign. Additionally, for the first time in the franchise’s history, there is a Battle Royale mode – Blackout.
Activision has now announced that Black Ops 4 sales have already set some new records.
Strongest digital Day-1 release at Activision
Black Ops launch sets records: Although the publisher has not provided actual sales numbers for its Call of Duty titles for years, it proudly announced that Black Ops 4 was the largest digital Day-1 release in the company’s history.
This means that more digital copies of Black Ops 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC were sold in a shorter time span than those of Destiny 2, Call of Duty: WW II, or other Activision titles.
Here are some other records that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has set:
- Black Ops 4 became the best-selling “Full Game” on Day 1 in the PlayStation Store – worldwide
- Black Ops 4 was the best-selling digital Activision title on Day 1 in the Xbox Store
- The first Battle.net release of a Call of Duty increased digital Day-1 sales on PC by more than double compared to the previous year
- The total number of players who were online to play Black Ops 4 has increased compared to last year’s Call of Duty release
Viewer numbers on Twitch show the success of Black Ops 4: When looking at viewer numbers on Twitch as an indicator, it becomes clear that Black Ops 4 had a significantly stronger launch than Call of Duty: World War II.
While the maximum viewer count for WW II was around 148,000 in August 2018 (about 124,000 at release), Black Ops 4 already boasts a peak of 449,597 viewers at launch.
What do these records mean for Activision? However, this does not mean that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has sold better than all other Call of Duty installments. It is also unclear how the sales of the physical disc version of the game are doing.
Nonetheless, this is a significant success for the publisher, especially considering that Call of Duty: WW II overshadowed many previous titles in the series with its sales numbers.
What’s the catch?
What is really behind Activision’s statements? The publisher boasts of the records that Black Ops 4 has set. But as nice as all these reports may sound, none of this ultimately means that Black Ops 4 has sold better than Call of Duty: WW II in terms of total Day 1 sales.
There is no mention anywhere that total sales figures are higher than the previous year. Exact numbers and thus a transparent overview are missing.
How does Black Ops 4 relate to its predecessors? Furthermore, there is also no information on how Black Ops 4 sales compare directly to Black Ops 3, Black Ops 2, and other earlier Call of Duty titles.
The only thing that can be said for certain now is that digital sales are higher this year at launch – a general trend in the video game industry. Thus, a complete picture of Black Ops 4 sales figures cannot really be derived.
However, with search interest on Google Trends, Black Ops 4 is significantly larger than its predecessor, as seen in the comparison of the relative number of search queries with Black Ops 3 from 2015.
