Call of Duty 4 breaks 10 million

By Robert Purchese Published 4 June, 2008

Xbox 360 version outsold others apparently.

Infinity Ward has boasted that its acclaimed shooter Call of Duty 4 has surged past 10 million sales around the world.

The developer spilled the beans to News.com, and revealed that the Xbox 360 version had been most successful, although no figures were mentioned.

Call of Duty 4 was released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 last November. Its attraction is such that it still commands a top 10 place in the UK All-Formats chart, holding on at nine for the week just passed.

It won universal praise for its cinematic battles and a welcome move onto a modern battlefield, marking a high point for the series as a whole. We also liked the one with the bushy beard moustache thing and cigar. Extra points.

Alas, although unconfirmed, it appears to be alternate series developer Treyarch set to deliver Call of Duty 5, with action rumoured to return to the tired fields of World War II.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • andromeda #1 4 years ago

    "apparently"

    nice touch XD

  • carrotcake #2 4 years ago

    christ almighty. there are loads of brilliant games that sell nowhere near 10m. that's a big milestone.

  • Dizzy #3 4 years ago

    Gratz guys. Good game.

  • penhalion #4 4 years ago

    WW2 is done to death. I understand it's a great point in our history but, give it a rest already! There are enough conflicts here today that need addressing without living entirely in the past. Maybe they should take some historic advice "Rememeber the past so as not to repeat it" hint bloody hint!

  • JJrabbit #5 4 years ago

    Deserved.

  • FooAtari #6 4 years ago

    End it on a high. 4 games is enough. Move onto to something new IW

  • alimokrane #7 4 years ago

    @FooAtari

    Did you read the 10 MILLION ? $$$$$ they will never abandon COD now. the game has already sold enough to cover the failure of the next sequel.

  • GamesConnoisseur #8 4 years ago

    X360 being most successful is not that scientific with the popuation numbers of X360 and PS3 consoles to date, but what is the attach rate?

    For example 40% X360 owners got COD4 to give us 7.2 million (out of 18 million) and 30% PS3 owners would be 3.6 million (out of 12 million) and that would be quite interesting to see what the reason for the percentage difference.

    Would it be an indication that certain number of PS3 buyers are mainly using PS3 as BR player rather than as a game machine and not buying COD4 and other games? One of the reason behind Sony wanting to reposition PS3 as a game console?!

    I know I have not counted into the simple equation above the PC owners, and the math is not accuratel! Only giving us an idea and my understanding is that PC version is usually about 10 percent or so of console versions sold.
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 10:28

  • bad09 #9 4 years ago

    "Awesome awesome game which deserves the huge sales figure. "

    Absolutely I love it, although it's kind of killed most FPS's for me. Not sure about COD5 I'll have to see it first. I haven't been to WWII since COD3 anyway, Treyarch didn't do a bad job exactly but there was something missing especially online with COD3.

    Either way IW COD6 will be awesome! :)

  • Putty-Man #10 4 years ago

    Excellent game, well done IW.

    Here's hoping COD6 will have you play as Germany/France/anybody and attack America to free its citizens, or something.

  • bad09 #11 4 years ago

    "...attack America..."

    Sounds good Putty Man, where do I sign up?

  • Foundry #12 4 years ago

    I always thought COD3 multiplayer was very underrated. It had its problems, but it was able to balance infantry/vehicle warfare much better than BF2 did.

  • bad09 #13 4 years ago

    "I'm not so keen on the campaign though "

    Agreed, I haven't even finished the campaign, every time it goes in the 360 mutliplayer winks at me and invites me in "are your trying to seduce me Mrs Modern Warfare?"

    Kind of reminds me of this.... :)

    http://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAvyD-_i...

  • sd99 #14 4 years ago

    Call of Duty 4 has sold over 6 million on the Xbox 360, over 3 million on the PS3 and the remainder on other platforms.
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 10:49

  • syphaa #15 4 years ago

    I really hope for the love of god that COD 5 isnt a crock of shit.
    They should definitely build on the mechanics/setting of COD 4...seems nuts not to in my opinion...as I am sure at least 5 million of those sales will come back for more...surely its worth their time and effort? Strange.

  • Vivid #16 4 years ago

    Well WWII is a dry well, so what about...

    a WWI game with cheery Tommies and trench foot?

    Or a British Empire game where you promote the benefits of cricket and homosexuality by shooting the 'darkies' and getting the widows addicted to opium? I suppose we do have Resident Evil 5 and Far Cry 2 for that.

    Or given most software houses sensitivity to recent history, a game set in Northern Ireland in the 70's. It'd be like Father Ted meets Life on Mars! (Except with a few more nail bombs.)

  • bad09 #17 4 years ago

    "a WWI game with cheery Tommies and trench foot? "

    Vivid

    a game about living in mud, shooting/bombing/gassing blindly at each other and the odd game of footy wouldn't make a good game :)

  • paulf #18 4 years ago

    @ vercetti102 try playing search and destroy or hardcore team deathmatch, they play out a much slower game. Ive also stopped playing this but then i have played it for over 11 days so it was due a break - great game though - best online fps imo

    what is also interesting is that its sales figures have been consistant - a lot of people recommending it i think

    aren't we still waiting for the eurogamer multiplayer review?

  • Brianstorm #19 4 years ago

    i still play the multiplayer on a very regular basis after getting ti at launch, also haaven't completed the single player yet.... well deserved sales for IW, now if only they can sort that peer to peer mess out on PS3 and add rumble for the DS3...

  • Vivid #20 4 years ago

    @ Bad09

    Could I sway your opinion with a Paul McCartney sound track?

  • BadBoyBonner #21 4 years ago

    aren't we still waiting for the eurogamer multiplayer review?

    I can't remember seeing one an EG said...

    Needless to say, with the game not even on the shelves at the time of writing, it hasn't been possible to put it through its paces in any meaningful sense, so we'll aim to report back on this side of the game early next week when we've had a chance to play it with, you know, actual human beings.

    Hmmm i guess they haven't found any human beings on their yet, they must be going on it near midnight and getting a game full of homophobic teenage Americans.

  • bad09 #22 4 years ago

    @ Vivid

    I always fall for Paul McCartney. So did his wife, but she only had one leg...

    / gets coat

  • DFawkes #23 4 years ago

    Anyone else think Haze would've felt like a better game if CoD4 hadn't been released? Nope, no one? Nah, me neither.

    I can't play any multiplayer FPS anymore without thinking "I could be getting XP on CoD4, and it's more fun". I don't even know why it's so good, it just is. especially now it isn't WWII. That is still just a rumour though, I find it hard to believe they'd igore pretty much all these 10 million people and make it WWII again. Would they?

  • sneetch #24 4 years ago

    COD5 is WW2?

    Perfect sense, I can't wait to run through more brown bombed-out shitholes in some vaguely European town shooting "ze Germanz" again.


  • gamefan #25 4 years ago

    COD4 has set a bar so high it will take something special to beat it, especially online (PS3)

    I have clocked more time on this than any other game ever (19 +days, 60,000+ kills and counting). And I ahve been playing sinnce the 70T's and am 50 years young.

    I hope they sell 20 million!

  • Fab4 #26 4 years ago

    Sneetch...good luck with that, the rumour is that CoD5 will be set in the Pacific theatre...so thats fighting the Japs.

    As for the oft claimed "WW2 has been done to death" chants...you think "save the world from despotic maniac using your special, elite forces" hasnt?

    CoD3 pissed all over CoD4 in terms of gameplay and enjoyability...imho.

  • paulf #27 4 years ago

    @ fab4 - 10 million people say you are wrong ;)

  • Fab4 #28 4 years ago

    10 million bought it...doesnt mean 10 million think its the best thing since sliced bread. I have 2 (PS3 and 360) copies of it and dont play it any more. I'd say I stopped playing it about 3 months ago and when I checked the leaderboards recently I was still around the 180,000 mark in terms of Kills....which would indicate to me that while a lot of people bought, not many of them are still playing it.

  • paulf #29 4 years ago

    assuming that your position is on the xbox live leaderboard and there are say 6 million players on that scoreboard you are in the top 0.03% so 99.97% of players are below you - all you are showing is that you have got more kills than others, not how much they have played - only the hardcore would effect your ranking - i havent played cod3 so i cant comment on that but cod4 is the best online fps ive played, and my second most played game after wow - and thats in over 25 years of gaming.

  • afghan_jones #30 4 years ago

    It is very good. But its still not fit to lick the boots of Halo 3.

    not enough variety. Multiplayer is fun but the actual gameplay is very old fashioned. No 'emergent gameplay'.

  • Quint2020 #31 4 years ago

    /waits for COD6

  • paulf #32 4 years ago

    halo3 online is great no doubt there's a few reasons i'd rate multiplayer over halo3

    no springy rabbit jumping
    ability to pick weapons/class - so not a mad rush to the best weapons
    instant respawn vs killcam -
    I also think the uav works better in cod4 - being shot based rather than movement based
    and of cause levelling up is addictive

  • DFawkes #33 4 years ago

    What could CoD5 be? CoD5: Future Combat (another bald Space marine game)? Another Modern Combat? I have no idea what they could do, but Treyarch iterations are usually more like mission packs than proper sequels, so I'm not expecting change.

    CoD5:The Clone Wars? CoD 5:Dynasty Warriors? CoD5:Shut up already DFawkes with your gibbering?

  • bad09 #34 4 years ago

    "It is very good. But its still not fit to lick the boots of Halo 3. "

    Not for me. H3 got traded eventually, I could never part with COD4.

  • Kyledanutmeg #35 4 years ago

    WW2 games are getting so dull boring and old now because theres so many types of WW2 games that are out or comming out. Should stcik with modern warfare as it has been a lot more popular than COD3 and so on backwards. And there sucess has been greater than nything surely they can realise that. But hey i guess we get stuck with what they make.

  • AtomicBanana #36 4 years ago

    So I finally bought this for PC yesterday. Single player was rather underwhelming, soooo much scripting, drew me out of the world somewhat. I'm sure I'll love the multiplayer though!

  • DUFFMAN5 #37 4 years ago

    Has to be NAM, what's wrong with you Dev's.

  • TurboBailey #38 4 years ago

    10 million satisfied punters i think.... im still playing it often and i bought it on launch day.

    Top game!

  • NKSR #39 4 years ago

    good job IW..


    i now expect them to be bought out by EA :(

  • james-mw3-mw3 #40 7 months ago

    To think that Modern Warfare 3's full reveal trailer was released on May 23, 2011. What's up with Activision and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 these days, the game has the highest amount of pre-orders to date, no need for extra Call of Duty: MW3 trailers. The game will sell without them, just like this one!