'Call of Duty: Black Ops' sales top one billion dollars

"Call of Duty: Black Ops," the new videogame from Activision Blizzard, has crossed the one-billion-dollar mark in worldwide sales, the company said Tuesday.

Activision, citing internal estimates, said "Call of Duty: Black Ops" reaped more than 650 million dollars worldwide in the first five days after it went on sale in November and has gone on to earn more than one billion dollars.

"In all of entertainment, only 'Call of Duty' and 'Avatar' have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly," Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick said in a statement.

Activision said more than 600 million hours have been logged playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops" since the launch of the game on November 9.

Activision said that according to Microsoft, the average player logs on more than once a day and plays for more than one hour each time.

"Even more remarkable than the number of units sold is the number of hours people are playing the game together online which are unprecedented," said Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision Publishing.

"Call of Duty: Black Ops" is the seventh title in a franchise that has won a devoted following since the first version was released in 2003.

The latest installment takes gamers on a series of Cold War-era military adventures.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" was last year's biggest grossing console game with more than 20 million units sold around the world.

(c) 2010 AFP