Call of Duty franchise has now made over $31 billion in lifetime revenues

The best-selling Call of Duty franchise has now made $31 billion in lifetime revenues thanks to a significant boost from the newly-released Modern Warfare 2.

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Today Activision announced that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has made $1 billion in just 10 days time, making it the fastest-earning game in the entire franchise. This development not only underlines the might of one of the most powerful forces in all of media, but also updates total series revenues.

Based on Modern Warfare 2's numbers, total Call of Duty franchise sales have now broken $31 billion. Back in June, The Washington Post published an article that confirmed the series had earned a cumulative total of $30 billion. That number was up from the $27 billion figure that was presented as of December 2020, which meant the series had made $3 billion in all of 2020.

Now with Modern Warfare 2's recent figures we know that the franchise has made at least $31 billion to date. The earnings are likely much higher since the number does not include Call of Duty Mobile, Warzone, or game sales and monetization from evergreen games.

Let's put that number into perspective.

Call of Duty's $31 billion is more than 4x the total reported net revenue earnings from the Grand Theft Auto franchise since GTA V's release in in 2013. GTA earned $7.68 billion in recurring sales and monetization revenues since GTA V's release.

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Call of Duty has earned nearly four times as much as EA's Ultimate Team revenues from 2014 - 2021 ($7.917 billion).

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Activision has yet to update the Call of Duty franchise game sales numbers, and as of June, total series sales were at 425 million.

Based on Modern Warfare's massive breakout success we expect these numbers to be much higher. Remember that Call of Duty sold 25 million copies of games during the Vanguard era, which was regarded as the lowest point for the franchise in many years.

We have predicted that Modern Warfare 2 will be a watershed moment for the franchise due to its mass-market appeal, game sales, and targeted monetization, but the conjunction of Warzone 2.0 alongside Warzone 1.0 and COD Mobile will likely help the franchise break new revenue records across all metrics.