Call Of Duty Franchise Joins Pokemon In Reaching 300 Million Copies Sold

The Call of Duty franchise continues to soar. Activision announced today that the shooter series has now cleared 300 million copies sold since it debuted back in 2003. [Update: That number will only grow further later this year, as the new Call of Duty is Modern Warfare. This is a reboot of the sub-series, and notably it will offer cross-play and no season pass.]

For comparison, the Pokemon franchise passed 300 million copies sold after the release of Ultra Sun and Moon back in 2017. Meanwhile, the Sonic the Hedgehog series reached 350 million copies a few years ago. Exact numbers for other franchises are tougher to track down.

The Call of Duty series premiered in 2003 with Infinity Ward's World War II shooter Call of Duty. No mainline Call of Duty game was released in 2004, but a new entry has launched every year since, with development shifting around between Activision-owned studios like Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games, with support from other owned studios like Raven Software and High Moon, among others.

Activision has not provided a breakdown of sales by individual title or brand, but the Black Ops and Modern Warfare brands are believed to be the most successful.

The next Call of Duty game is launching later this year, and it's rumoured to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward, which created the brand. The game will be announced in the coming months. On top of that, a new Call of Duty mobile game from Tencent is coming.