Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is already the best-selling game of the year in the United States after just one month of sales.
Based on industry trends, the Call of Duty franchise is on track to deliver record earnings in 2022. Activision should break $9 billion in total annual revenues and Modern Warfare II is already breaking records, having achieved $1 billion in total game sales revenues in just 10 days time. These staggering revenues are expected to be even higher once monetization and in-game purchases are tallied up.
This tremendous sales momentum is reflected in data from the NPD Group, who tracks video game hardware, software, and accessories sales in the United States. According to the NPD Group's executive director of games Mat Piscatella, Modern Warfare II has become 2022's top-selling game in the region.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II repeated as the month's best-selling title in dollar sales while also becoming the best-seller for 2022 year to date. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was followed on the chart by three November new releases: God of War: Ragnarok, Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, and Sonic Frontiers," Piscatella wrote in a LinkedIn update.
Consumers in the United States spent $6.3 billion on games in November 2022, up 3% over last year, driven by a significant surge in video games hardware. It's worth noting that PlayStation 5 console availability has significantly increased thanks to Sony's efforts to ship 18 million PS5s by March 2023.
Year-to-date, the United States has spent $48.9 billion on games, down 6% year-over-year, with hardware making up a big portion of the sales upside. Games and content, including full digital and physical games, and microtransaction purchases across all platforms, made up $41.9 billion.
