Call of Duty franchise revenues exceed $35 billion

Activision's Call of Duty franchise is like no other in the games industry and has amassed over an estimated $37 billion in total cumulative revenues.

Call of Duty franchise revenues exceed $35 billion
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Senior Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: The Call of Duty franchise has generated over $35 billion in lifetime revenue from game sales, microtransactions, and subscriptions, making it the highest-grossing gaming series globally. Key titles like Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare III significantly contributed to this record-breaking financial success.

The Call of Duty franchise has now made at least $35 billion in cumulative lifetime revenue across game sales, microtransactions, and subscription access, data estimates indicate.

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Activision's Call of Duty series stands alone insofar as consistent billion-dollar premium game sales and monetization--it's the only franchise on the planet that can simultaneously sell tens of millions of copies a year while simultaneously raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional in-game purchases.

Based on our findings, the Call of Duty franchise has made over $35 billion to date--and potentially much more than this.

So how did we get this number if neither Activision nor Microsoft reports these figures any longer?

In 2022, The Washington Post published an article that confirmed Call of Duty had earned a cumulative total of $30 billion.

Then later in that same year, Activision announced that Black Ops II had made over $1 billion in game sales revenue in just 10 days. That would put Call of Duty earnings at at least $31 billion.

2023 saw the release of Modern Warfare III, and based on LinkedIn profile data, we know that MW3 also generated at least $1 billion in revenue on release. This would put cumulative Call of Duty revenues at $32 billion.

That brings us to Black Ops 6. Based on even more LinkedIn profile data, we know that Black Ops 6 was the highest-grossing Call of Duty game ever.

More info from data sleuth Timur222 shows that the older versions of Black Ops 2 & Black Ops 3 had grossed $2.75 billion each.

This would mean Black Ops 6 had generated more than, and at least, $2.75 billion because it's the highest-grossing Call of Duty of all time.

So, at minimum, the Call of Duty franchise has made around $34.75 billion, or about $35 billion. We don't know the upper limit of this estimated range and Call of Duty's total earnings could be much higher.