Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise in PlayStation history, Sony says

Call of Duty is the best-selling PlayStation franchise of all time, beating out any other first-party IP or series, Sony has confirmed in marketing info.

Published
Updated
1 minute & 28 seconds read time

Nintendo has Mario, Microsoft has Halo, and Sony has...Call of Duty.

Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise in PlayStation history, Sony says 1Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise in PlayStation history, Sony says 3
VIEW GALLERY - 4 IMAGES

Sony has made an interesting claim that all worldwide regulators will want to pay attention to. Call of Duty is the "best-selling franchise on PlayStation," Sony has loudly proclaimed on the back of every retail boxed copy of Modern Warfare 2.

The data is based on full game sales as of April 2022, Sony notes, which coincides with a period where Call of Duty sold 25 million copies in one year.

So why is this important? Well, for one, Call of Duty is important to Sony and any post Microsoft-Activision merger disruption of the franchise's availability, whether it be full-on game exclusivity or content, could impact Sony. Brazilian regulators at CADE have already assessed this based on internal figures and say that while Sony will be negatively impacted, that they won't be forced out of business.

It's also worth noting that Call of Duty hit record earnings on the PlayStation due to the system's significantly larger install base, which has given Sony much more leverage to secure multi-year licensing and exclusivity agreements with Activision (agreements, it should be noted, that Activision was all-too-willing to sign).

The mutualistic partnership has helped accelerate Sony's earnings to their highest point ever in FY2020, and also helped Activision generate a record-breaking $3 billion from Call of Duty in 2020.

Call of Duty being the best-selling franchise on PlayStation isn't necessarily surprising, but it could give regulators important context regarding the Microsoft-Activision merger. The fact that Call of Duty has sold more copies than Sony's own first-party franchise is also kind of perplexing on the surface level, but a closer look at Sony's actual first-party PlayStation game sales reveals that the company typically doesn't sell all that many first-party titles. This is to be expected given the massive amount of third-party games compared to the number of first-party titles, but it's still interesting to think that Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise on PlayStation.

Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise in PlayStation history, Sony says 2
Buy at Amazon

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$50.70$50.70$25.98
* Prices last scanned on 3/29/2024 at 5:28 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Derek joined the TweakTown team in 2015 and has since reviewed and played 1000s of hours of new games. Derek is absorbed with the intersection of technology and gaming, and is always looking forward to new advancements. With over six years in games journalism under his belt, Derek aims to further engage the gaming sector while taking a peek under the tech that powers it. He hopes to one day explore the stars in No Man's Sky with the magic of VR.

Newsletter Subscription

Related Tags