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Credit: Infinity Ward

Modern Setting FTW

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 physical sales up over 40% compared with Vanguard




It’s that time of the year folks. Call of Duty is here, and Modern Warfare 2 is rising up to the top of the charts worldwide.

For the unaware, MW2 sees the return of many of the franchise’s familiar faces. Infinity Ward is back after a three-year break to bring the franchise back to its modern roots.

Players will travel the globe to stop a looming threat with a team made up of veterans such as Ghost and Captain Price. Alongside that, the franchise’s multiplayer returns introducing new systems and plenty of chaos to keep you entertained.

Needless to say, fans have been waiting for the return of Modern Warfare. Reviews are in, and numbers are through the roof worldwide, especially in the UK, by a fairly large margin.

Infinity Ward

MW2 physical sales up a significant amount

Hot off the game’s launch late last week, the UK reports that physical sales of MW2 are fairly high. The Games Industry reports that sales are up 40% compared to last year’s disappointing CoD: Vanguard.

In comparison, sales are up 9% over 2020’s iteration, CoD: Black Ops – Cold War. There are a couple of things to note in terms of the actual physical sales breakdown.

53% of sales came from PS5 users, 29% came from Xbox users, and 18% came from PS4 players. Rather interesting split given the arms race going on over CoD right now.

The strong start vaulted CoD up to the third largest physical sales release of the year behind FIFA 22 and PokĂ©mon Legends: Arceus. Quite impressive yet sort of saddening given the cries of “CoD is the same every year”.

Activision

I will say this, last year’s CoD: Vanguard was a disaster for the series. If anything, I hope this shows the higher-ups that the World War 2 setting has been exhausted.

With Warzone 2.0 set to launch in a few weeks, expect these numbers to change. For now, it seems that nothing will stop the CoD train from rolling, acquisition or not.

Coming from an academic background in Sport Management, John Esposito quickly discovered a love for gaming and decided to pursue a career in writing about video games. He covers a variety of topics from around the world of games, ranging from industry news to the latest video game releases.