This past year’s release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 proves that the series still has energy to burn, even after a decade of annual releases. And a statement released by Activision today gives us an idea of just how unstoppable it’s become, at least in terms of revenue.
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The company sent out a press release announcing the appointment of three long-time company veterans to new positions, including Call of Duty general manager Rob Kostich’s move to president; King chief financial officer and chief strategy officer Humam Sakhnini to president of that particular company; and company chief financial officer Dennis Durkin to an expanded role as president of emerging businesses.
But in the midst of these appointments, Activision noted the following: “Call of Duty has become one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. As a franchise, Call of Duty has now generated more revenue than the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the box office, and double that of the cumulative box office of Star Wars.”
This is a bold statement, especially considering how well the MCU and Star Wars have performed for Disney over the past few years. The Marvel Studios releases set a huge record for 2018 alone, between Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and Ant Man & the Wasp grossing over $4 billion in global revenue.
Star Wars hasn’t done too shabby either. Even though Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t live up to its box office potential, the series has still made huge money over the past couple of years, thanks to the billion-plus revenue The Last Jedi produced back in 2017.
Exact figures weren’t given, but Black Ops 4 has been outselling Treyarch’s previous release Call of Duty: Black Ops III on a 3-to-1 ratio, even without the series’ traditional single player campaign. The game also did extremely well during its launch month and continued to be a huge hit through the holidays.
As far as what the future will bring, we’ve already heard a number of rumors about what Infinity Ward has planned for its 2019 release, and how it could be a return to its traditional Modern Warfare sub-series following the mixed reaction that 2013’s Ghosts and 2016’s Infinite Warfare received. We’ll find out what they have planned over the next few months.
In the meantime, congrats to Activision’s new appointments, as well as its continued success on the Call of Duty franchise. It’ll be interesting to see what the future brings from here. Probably more Battle Royale, that’s for sure.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Do you think Call of Duty deserves its success? Reach out to me on Twitter at @TheDCD!
