Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 earns over $500 million in first 24 hours

In the first 24 hours its availability, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 earned more than $500 million worldwide, Activision announced today. The numbers are an estimate based on Chart-Track, retail customer sell-through information, and internal company estimates. 

"With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.

"Call of Duty has become more than a product people buy, it's a brand people buy into.  And every November we do more than just the launch of a game, we kick off an annual, unofficial but worldwide phenomenon called the Call of Duty season," added Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. 

"I want to thank our incredible team at Treyarch for making an amazing game, everyone at Activision for making this brand a force of nature and our retail partners for their unprecedented support of this franchise. But most importantly I want to thank our millions of fans for their continued support and loyalty and for making us better every day," Hirshberg concluded.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is now available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The game is expected to be released in North America for Nintendo's new Wii U system on November 18, 2012.