Call of Duty retail sales drop year-over-year for the third straight year

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sales were down 27 percent year-over-year in its first month compared to Call of Duty: Ghosts, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson.

Confirmed by the recently released NPD numbers for November, Advanced Warfare continues an observed trend in Call of Duty retail sales within the U.S.—a steady decline since their peak in 2011, with Modern Warfare 3. In comparison, Advanced Warfare sold only 49 percent of what MW3 did in 2011. NPD doesn’t take into consideration digital or international sales, which is believed to lessen the blow of these numbers.

Overall, however, it seems a little unfair to compare a game to the astronomical sales of MW3. Modern Warfare 3 sold nearly 10 million units in its historical first month of sales in the U.S., and a billion dollars worth of retail copies worldwide. It’s hard to imagine Activision being too disappointed with half of those numbers instead.

Despite the perceived poor showing for Advanced Warfare, Activision is still well within in its projected earnings due to the success of games like Hearthstone. And Advanced Warfare still won November in terms of game sales and is already the best-selling US retail title this year thus far.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Call of Duty retail sales drop year-over-year for the third straight year