Call of Duty: Ghosts is the Best-Selling Next Gen Launch

Call of Duty: Ghosts is the Best-Selling Next Gen Launch Title in North America

The next generation of consoles is upon us and millions of gamers are either buying a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, or optimistically putting them on their Christmas wishlist before handing it to their richest relative. The season has also brought with it a host of brand new games designed to sweeten up the new console launches and ensure that there’s plenty of games to gift during the holiday season. Love it or hate it, there’s one franchise that has once again come out on top during the new consoles’ launch.

A press release from Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Ghosts is currently the best-selling title for the PS4 and the most pre-ordered title for the Xbox One at Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Walmart, making it the leader among other next-gen launch titles such as Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Forza Motorsport 5 and Killzone: Shadow Fall.

Announcements from Activision regarding Call of Duty sales are always worth a bit of extra scrutiny, as earlier this month it was erroneously reported by a few different outlets that $1 billion worth of Call of Duty: Ghosts sales had been made on day one… without the important caveat that those were sales to retailers rather than consumers. Needless to say, Rockstar Games is probably going to hold its current day one record for Grand Theft Auto V for a while yet.

With that in mind, these reports do align with our expectations for Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ performance; an analyst recently described the franchise as “review-proof,” and it’s certainly true that Call of Duty games have a strong fanbase that always guarantee a certain number of sales. By mid-summer 2013, Call of Duty: Ghosts was already topping the list of most pre-ordered games for the remaining year, so these impressive sales don’t come as too much of a surprise.

Speaking of things that shocked absolutely no one, Activision recently announced that 2014 will bring another Call of Duty title from Treyarch, which will most probably be Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. With a franchise that guarantees such massive profits with each release, it’s unlikely that the annual release pattern will break any time soon.