Call of Duty: Ghosts sells $1 billion into retail for day one

Despite rather pedestrian reviews (by its own standards), Call of Duty: Ghosts has sold-in more than $1 billion into retail stores worldwide as of day one. What's odd is that unlike previous years, when Activision has disclosed the amount of money generated by day one sales, the publisher has only chosen to go with the number sold into retail. It's not a figure that represents actual sales of the game to consumers.

Mystery aside, the latest installment in Activision's popular first-person shooter franchise has become the number one most played game on Xbox LIVE, according to Microsoft. Additionally, Activision noted that on Xbox 360, average player sessions for Ghosts have been longer than Black Ops 2 or Modern Warfare 3, during the same period.

"Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year.

"Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it's launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular."

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg added, "Ghosts is an amazing game which ushers in the next generation of Call of Duty. The team at Infinity Ward has delivered yet another epic thrill ride in the campaign, and what I think is our best multiplayer game yet."

Call of Duty: Ghosts is one of those rare titles that, despite mediocre scores, can continue to sell at a record pace. Here at GameZone, we scored Ghosts a 7.5/10, saying it's "not the next-gen leap we were hoping for," while calling it "another solid installment to the franchise."