"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" Blows Records Away (ATVI, GME, MSFT)

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) may actually hit that $500 million first week target after all.  The company has announced this morning that since the 12:00 launch on Tuesday that its much-hyped “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” has become the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment.  Forget Star Wars, forget Halo 3.  The company has put the internal estimated sell-through sales at a figure of $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone in just the first 24 hours. The company also estimates that it sold approximately 4.7 million copies in just North America and the United Kingdom.

This was released at over 10,000 retail outlets in the U.S. alone.  GameStop (NYSE: GME) also used he strength to reaffirm guidance this week.

For a comparison of how big this is, we looked back at our figiures on the Halo 3 game sales. That was also a record breaker with over 2 million copies sold and an estimates $170 million in the first 24 hours.  Halo 2 was approximately $125 million.  Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) might want to rethink the return of Master Chief.

The estimate that was out on the street was $500 million in sales during its first week.

JON C. OGG