Black Ops obliterates UK sales record

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 12 November, 2010

There can be no escape.

Call of Duty: Black Ops sold a whopping 1.4 million copies in its first day on sale in the UK.

That's the biggest UK day one performance ever – it sold 14 per cent more units than Modern Warfare 2 did during its first day on sale.

Let's put that day one sales figure into perspective. Namco Bandai's Enslaved has sold 800,000 units worldwide. MTV Games' Rock Band 3 sold 7386 units for the week ending 30th October in the UK. Microsoft's Xbox 360 exclusive Fable III sold 129,000 units in the UK during its first week on sale.

Figures released by UKIE/GfK Chart-Track to MCV reveal revenues of £58 million.

Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 sold 1.23 million units on day one, generating £47.7 million.

Treyarch's Black Ops enjoyed the biggest entertainment launch of all time across the US and UK, according to Activision, selling 5.6 million units combined day one and generating $360 million.

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, one of 2010's biggest hits, sold in 6.9 million units worldwide during its first three months on sale.

When Activision's financial year ends, how many Black Ops units will have been sold?

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (76) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • geeza2020 #1 2 years ago

    /hangs self

  • thedaveeyres #2 2 years ago

    \o/

  • guernican #3 2 years ago

    Whose catchphrase was "Good Grief?" Penfold or Dangermouse? Damned if I can remember.

    Anyway, that.

  • landlock #4 2 years ago

    Well i'm not the biggest COD fan but I've been enjoying Black Ops quite a lot so far. The sales are insane though in the Tesco's I work at they made £7000 in one hour on COD alone at midnight and I only live in a small town.

  • guernican #5 2 years ago

    @Chaney

    This isn't marketing, it's Investor Relations.

  • dwalker109 #6 2 years ago

    That last line made me laugh. Not sure if it was supposed to sound like a GCSE maths question or not.

  • miiiguel #7 2 years ago

    What about Reach ?

  • PlugMonkey #8 2 years ago

    Chaney - How is THIS not news? The biggest selling game of all time is not news?

    Of all the things that EG has posted in the last year, this seems quite comfortably the most news worthy.

  • ZuluHero #9 2 years ago

    I dunno - I escaped :)

  • Ninja_Tino #10 2 years ago

    I rented it, finished the campaign, took it back. Fun single player.

  • LazyDan #11 2 years ago

    It's amazing how each year a new sales record seems to get smashed. It suggests that in the coming years something will beat this.

  • mcmonkeyplc #12 2 years ago

    I didn't buy!

  • FogHeart #13 2 years ago

    "Good grief"=DangerMouse.
    "Crumbs"=Penfold.

    Edit: Crumbs!
    Edited by FogHeart at 12/11/10 @ 11:25

  • Ranger101 #14 2 years ago

    @Chaney - Haters gonna hate.

  • JBlokeUK #15 2 years ago

    ''There can be no escape.''

    You can say that again.

  • MyPointIs #16 2 years ago

    Boicot Activi... Oh!

  • aarlev #17 2 years ago

    "Microsoft's Xbox 360 exclusive Fable III sold 129,000..."

    I thought it was coming to the PC further down the line? Or have they canceled the PC version? :(

  • darkmorgado #18 2 years ago

    There can be no escape.

    Not when you're bludgeoning us over the head every 5 minutes with yet another COD story, no.

  • darkmorgado #19 2 years ago

    @Plugmonkey
    Of all the things that EG has posted in the last year, this seems quite comfortably the most news worthy.

    Is it really? I thought that a comfortable majority seem to find sales figures articles pointless for anyone other than fanboys.

  • Mkwone #20 2 years ago

    @dwalker109

    If Call of Duty Blaclkl Ops sold 1.4m copies in a single day in the UK, exactly how much is Bobby Kotick laughing his balls off?

  • TopKatt #21 2 years ago

    @Fogheart

    wasn't Penfolds catchphrase "Crikey?"

    Anyway, crikey!

  • coolbritannia #22 2 years ago

    Good Grief was Dengermouse. Remember Reach!

  • Goodfella #23 2 years ago

    Charlie Brown says good grief.

  • Bonders99 #24 2 years ago

    Well if the masses continue to lap up a pretty generic shooter year upon year. You know the same thing reskinned then Activision will continue to milk it. For me personally my interest ended with COD 4 Modern Warfare. That's about as far as the series went for me in terms on innovation.

  • Monkey_Puncher #25 2 years ago

    *sigh*

  • Bonders99 #26 2 years ago

    At work 3 women were telling us all that they were queuing in Asda at midnight to get it for their kids who were in bed because they had school the next day. Pretty much sums it all up

  • Paulie_P #27 2 years ago

    Do we really need this article after yesterdays stating that Black Ops broke a sales record.

    We get it already, we really do.
    Edited by Paulie_P at 12/11/10 @ 11:38

  • beastmaster #28 2 years ago

    Aren't EA about to make some kind of 'exciting' announcement about MOH? Looking at those sales figures, I don't think anyone will give a toss.

  • PlugMonkey #29 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado
    "Is it really? I thought that a comfortable majority seem to find sales figures articles pointless for anyone other than fanboys."

    Well, name something more newsworthy? More newsworthy than the biggest game ever?

    This casts its shadow over pretty much every single issue going on in the games industry: spiralling game budgets, the Infinity Ward split and publisher vs developer power, the increasing focus on franchises, the future of games as boxed products.

    All that's only relevent to fanboys and flamewars? That's a oddly narrow view.

  • geeza2020 #30 2 years ago

    Chaney - "While a geniunely good mainstream game (Rock Band 3) gets nothing but negative stories posted about it, day after day"

    Isn't that the same Rock Band 3 that this very website gave a 10/10 review to? Not very negative really.

  • chrisjm #31 2 years ago

    It prints money!

  • Quint2020 #32 2 years ago

    Ugh...

  • Byblos1 #33 2 years ago

    The sales figures also reveal the disproportionate amount of coverage that Fable and Peter Molyneux get on this site.

  • FortysixterUK #34 2 years ago

    Shame then, that as a single player experience, its just ok.
    Production is amazing, acting is fine, story is ok, maybe the lack of an intro and the ceaseless action are nobbling it a bit.
    Can't quite determine where it's lacking ( and it's only lacking a little something ), but what I do know is Battlefield Bad Company 2 was more fun single player.
    I think this games massive sales reflect the multiplayer interest more than anything else.

  • Bealsy #35 2 years ago

    jBlokeUK: ''There can be no escape.''

    You can say that again.

    There can be no escape.

  • JoeGBallad #36 2 years ago

    Brilliant. The biggest selling example of my hobby is a soldier game, where you shoot guns and kill folk to make you feel like Billy big baws. I wish I could go back in time and buy 2 million copies of space channel 5 on it's launch day, just to make the world a better place.

  • rickimalone #37 2 years ago

    Good to hear. Quality games = great rewards for developers, which is as it should be.

    HOWEVER

    A big warning though for the COD franchise. The miniute that they start to take the p1ss out of gamers with poor quality, rush jobs it will be the end of launch day success like we've just witnessed.

  • albinac #38 2 years ago

    well i like to know how many units of a game are sold on it´s first day, week, after 3 months and total lifetime sales.its good to know how well your favourite game is doing on the market.treyarch deserve some success after being in the shadow of infinty no more for such a long time. go treyarch go,lets see if you guys get paid for the hard work done or if bobby colddi-ck robs you people as well.bonus round, ding ding.

  • Quint2020 #39 2 years ago

    Games devoid of creativity sell a shit load, spread the word people!

  • albinac #40 2 years ago

    boycote activision but not the games companies working under them.stand out in front of the activision offices with a sign saying money grabbers,destoryers of the video games market but do buy a greath game made by treyarch.enjoy games and hate the pricks that are ruining it.

  • Mkwone #41 2 years ago

    @Chaney yes because Eurogamer are so much in the pockets of Activision that they gave the last GH 7/10 where as the competitor got a lowly 10/10.

    It's so obvious now, THANK YOU!

  • FooAtari #42 2 years ago

    Well I didn't buy MW2, but picked up Black Ops which is first CoD I've played since 4. Single player is alright I suppose, but im really enjoying the multi player so far. No where near the best game I've ever played, but it's a lot of fun so far.

  • SteveHolt #43 2 years ago

    Halo reach sold millions in september, MOH too in october, and now this. I mean, you guys REALLY like shooting each other in the face. May the lag be with you!

  • itsfuzzy #44 2 years ago

    Cue every developer or publisher making re hashs of COD and Medal of Honor for the next 5 years. Oh dear

  • bad09 #45 2 years ago

    I will say well desevered...once it's fixed.

  • Rack #46 2 years ago

    Much as it seems like EA pissed in Eurogamers cornflakes sometime after the Rock band 3 review considering it sold about 3 copies I don't see why anyone would bother paying them off to diss it. As for this there's a kind of grim inevitability of Acti rushing out a mediocre shooter and it selling a grillion copies while fantastic games like Rock Band 3 and Vanquish fade into the ether.
    Edited by Rack at 12/11/10 @ 12:22

  • CaptainKid #47 2 years ago

    Not surprised.
    Even I bought this and never bought a COD game before.
    Stupid console port.
    But wanted to see what the fuss was all about.

    Single player is fun, extremely handholding and linear but fun.
    Multi player is to hardcore for my taste.

  • Noble6 #48 2 years ago

    Some people on here just post a load of bollocks, If uve playd Mw2 or Blak Ops u wud realise that both these games have great production value and definitely are alot of fun. kudos to Treyarch, as far as the annual franchise is concerned... its fine by me as long as the quality does not suffer.

  • TVoJ #49 2 years ago

    Well I for one am glad there's a new Call of duty out. (CoD Blops lol)
    It means there won't be as many "I'm gonna scoop your eyeballs out and skull fuck this shit outta you, you (INSERT ETHNIC SLUR HERE)" cockbags ruining my Battlefield experiance for the next few months.

    On a serious note, played the MP last night for a few hours. It's CoD, no surprises, no improvements, and still people under maps. Wtf? 4 games on and they still havent fixed that? I'm just glad that over the last 4 years I havent paid £160+ for the same game.

  • coojam #50 2 years ago

    Isn't the fastest selling movie of all time Spider-Man 3? At least the no. 1 game is a good game, even if it's not the coverstar we'd like for the industry!

  • digoutyoursoul #51 2 years ago

    i disagree, games like this bore me especially the multiplayer. each to their own i suppose.

  • natashaspice #52 2 years ago

    Now all we have to do is wait for bobby cuntic to fire all of them over bonus complaints. On a serious sidenote I hope what happened to infinity ward doesn't play out the same way for treyarch, really enjoying black ops so far.

  • macmurphy #53 2 years ago

    I also think it's a bit odd for posters to begrudge Treyarch their success or deny validity of stories about that success. It's the biggest gaming release around, it's massive for the industry, it has a lot of fans, why not put in centre stage?

    Also you can see how gaming is increasingly mainstream, and the success of games like this are driving that transition.There was massive media coverage about the game in print, on TV and on the radio. If it means my hobby gets the kind of coverage reserved for arguably less popular media - ie. a decent three or four pages in the sunday papers as opposed to a throwaway half page - then I'm all for it.

    More than anything else I find people really judgmental in the way they talk about it. People buy COD because they like it. Modern Warfare was a great game and the success of the franchise has come off of the back of that. People enjoy this type of game and Treyarch and IW have produced year on year - they deserve the brand loyalty and the sales. People act like the only reason people buy it is because they are too stupid to know any better. That's not true, they buy it because they like shooters and the COD series has consistently been the best one out there.

    People like a style of game and chose to buy one of the best in that genre. It's not rocket science.

    Edited by macmurphy at 12/11/10 @ 12:54

  • bodypopper #54 2 years ago

    I think Black Ops is fantastic/rubbish/meh and overhyped/worthy of praise/irrelevant.
    Feel free to neg/plus me/not care.

  • Soton4084 #55 2 years ago

    The only reason I ended up buying it is because of the good deals on offer. I need a new PSN card and the Tesco deal (COD for £25 when you buy a £20 PSN card) was simply too good to pass up! Even if I don't like the game I can sell it on eBay and break even at the very least! (last year I made £15 profit after purchasing it cheap in Sainsbury's and selling it on eBay to someone in Brazil) . It's a bit of a no-brainer really!

  • UncleLou #56 2 years ago

    Not bought it, not really interested in it, but to claim this isn't newsworthy is shockingly ridiculous.

  • Noble6 #57 2 years ago

    @macmurphy
    Thank you. Well said sir.

  • makeamazing #58 2 years ago

    I have got it (rented it) and to be honest, i would have been very upset to have paid money for BO, its quite poor, and just as bad as MW2.... the game is playing you, it doesnt seem like you actually play the game. But while they are selling by the bucket load, i dont see them making it a better game

  • Haq-1 #59 2 years ago

    EXACTLY wat i was thnking macmurphy after reading Chaney's stupid comments. I bought Black ops coz i generally like shooters and also having a laugh with my mates over the mic. Im a Uni student studyin pharmacy and according to Chaney im an "idiot"?
    Chaney why are you even posting comments if you dislike this game so much? Just ignore it fs

  • Darren #60 2 years ago

    I've been quite surprised by this game. Despite being by Treyarch, who I previously always considered to be an inferior developer to Infinity Ward, I'm really enjoying Black Ops.

    The single player campaign is a vast improvement on Modern Warfare 2's confusing narrative and there's lots of variety throughout its run. Sure, the over-the-top action and set-pieces are more James Bond fantasy than realistic but what the hell does that matter if it's fun? There's plenty of content too. The Zombie mode is a nice distraction plus I found the Zork text adventure and overhead Zombie arcade game too in the interrogation room, the latter of which is surprisingly well-done and addictive. The offline multiplayer practice mode is also a nice addition for people like me who want to check out the maps but are too afraid to embarrass themselves against others online.

  • chasejamie #61 2 years ago

    I love the multiplayer, I get to shoot sweary kids in the face with a yellow smiley reticle. It's awesome!

  • andromeda #62 2 years ago

    i played it, and some the comments are spot on..
    You get to the end and dont really feel like you've had that much involvement; just memories of massives explosions, shrapnel and having to press x at a certain moment. Its closer to an interactive movie than I've ever played.

    Medal of Honour was a fine singleplayer game, really pisses on CODBlOps..
    And its buggy. I had to redo an entire level cos the character i was supposed to protect got stuck behind a motorbike and wouldnt move his checkpointing ass..

    i really dont see how this scored so highly.

    edit: bad spelling day!
    Edited by andromeda at 12/11/10 @ 13:50

  • WizenWolfBain #63 2 years ago

    I had a little "try before i buy" earlier. It was alright. About what i expected it to be.... COD:MW 2.5. The campaign is the only thing worth buying the game for, because the online is virtually the same as the last 3 games, and the enviornments actually looked slightly less polished in my opinion.

    I'll be giving this one a miss, but only because i got bored of the first 3 carbon clones at full retail price.

  • Paulie_P #64 2 years ago

    Yes it may be worth a news story but we've had multiple stories telling us how much its sold. Along with a lot of other crap about the game.

    You may say don't click on the news item but when you load up the homepage your faced with multiple COD and Kinect stories. There is a point at which it gets ridiculous and we have well past that point for this average game.

  • IronGiant #65 2 years ago

    So as I haven't joined the masses by buying this, whats the general feeling after a few days play? If it's a lot like MW2 then ill give it a miss.

    In other news kinect is in stock just about everywhere! :)

  • Haloboy #66 2 years ago

    Motherfucking well done Treyarch. Long overdue industry recognition and now success well deserved. I'll forgive you for releasing the game as it was as the newly released patch has removed all woes I once had.

  • des #67 2 years ago

    hehehe
    Everything is going according to the plan.

  • PlugMonkey #68 2 years ago

    Games like this are aimed at the lowest common denominator.
    And are enjoyed by the kind of people who think Transformers 2 is the best film ever.

    i.e. idiots.
    Shallow, Sun-reading idiots.

    It's a shoot 'em up. Shoot 'em ups aren't exactly new. It feeds into the compulsive twitch gaming that lies at the very origins of video games.

    I don't really understand why people are so sniffy about it. Because it's mass market?

    Why are the people who buy it idiots? What shooter should they buy instead?

    It's the best at what it does.

    Transformers 2 isn't. You are comparing a blockbuster franchise that consistently delivers a 90%+ metacritic experience to a blockbuster movie franchise that delivered a 35% metacritic experience, and that's a bit silly.

  • BlueHaze_Sean #69 2 years ago

    @Chaney

    I don't read the Sun, didn't enjoy Transformers, but did enjoy COD.

    But if I did read the Sun and did enjoy Transfrormers, how could you come to the conclusion I'm an idiot without knowing me?
    Sounds kind of idiotic to me






    Edited by BlueHaze_Sean at 12/11/10 @ 17:05

  • RedSparrows #70 2 years ago

    Chaney, please stop, you're embarrassing yourself - particularly after that woeful 'analysis' of EG's 'contract' with Acti.

    In other news, woe unto thee who loves CoD, for you are willingly guzzling at the trough of flashy-flashy.
    I hath spoken.

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #71 2 years ago

    totally disappointed with this disappointing shit,worst cod game ever. well done treyarch for making me wait a year for this bunch a crap, roll on kz3. please treyarch don't make any more cod games because you suk big time at this. spew spew spew spew spew
    Edited by DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON at 12/11/10 @ 22:51

  • NHDavid #72 2 years ago

    COD games are the worst on the planet..........

  • Lusterpurge #73 2 years ago

    You guys are pathetic. You get disappointed when a game you don't like sells well? Who cares? Let people that like COD enjoy their game.

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #74 2 years ago

    we were all deceived and I have a right to my opinion. I loved cod4 and Mw2 and had high expectations for black-ops. I'm just glad that treyarch isn't in control of developing Mw3, thank the cod gods for that....

  • stegabba #75 2 years ago

    i enjoy the game alot because i have not bought every single cod that came out and played it until my eyes bleed so to me its pretty damn good

  • craziii #76 2 years ago

    I like how eurogamer includes the number of copies sold. unlike movie hype where they totally gloss over the 100% price hikes over the last 3-4 decades. wish they include number of tickets sold :p