With 2020 now officially in full swing, a lot of data is starting to trickle in about how games performed throughout the previous year. Industry tracker SuperData has compiled quite a bit of info about the industry’s big earners, and one of those was Activision’s Call of Duty franchise. According to SuperData, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 accounted for 1.13 billion between the two games. The former title launched on October 25th, while Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 released in October 2018. Modern Warfare earned $647 million in its release year, while Black Ops 4 made an impressive $487 million as a result of the game’s DLC.
These are certainly some impressive numbers for the franchise! While Modern Warfare released to solid reviews, the game has had a small share of minor controversies, since. The game’s “rank refresh,” Time to Die watch paywall, and broken spawns have all caused some consternation for the game’s fanbase. It’s important to note that these issues all sprang up after launch, however. Considering how much revenue Black Ops 4 earned throughout 2019, it will be interesting to see if Modern Warfare can manage to do the same, or if these controversies will have any impact on the game’s long term viability for Activision.
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Of course, these controversies all came about after the game’s Season 1 launch, which was the biggest free content release in the franchise’s history. If the game’s spawns can be fixed via patch, it’s easy to imagine most fans will be okay with some trade-offs, especially considering the franchise’s passionate fanbase. In fact, most fans seemed to take the rank refresh fairly well, since weapons and ribbons were locked for bragging rights.
Modern Warfare‘s $647 million haul gave it the second highest-grossing PC or console game by revenue for the year. The title came in second to EA’s FIFA 19, which generated $786 million. FIFA 19 did release one month earlier, though, and Modern Warfare managed to beat a number of other major games on the list, including Grand Theft Auto V, Borderlands 3, and Sims 4
Have you been playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare? Do you plan on checking out any of the game’s DLC throughout 2020? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
