Summary
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3was November’s best-selling game in the United States, newly emerged industry data reveals. Its massively successful debut hence continued the fairly long tradition ofCall of Dutygames dominating sales chartsduring the penultimate month of the year.
Originally released on November 10 following a short campaign early access period, the latestCall of Dutygame debuted to a mixed critical response. But it didn’t take long for it to become clear that the shooter was going to be a commercial success, asModern Warfare 3dominated Steam and UK sales chartsduring its launch week.
Modern Warfare 3 Marks 5 Years of CoD’s November Sales Dominance
That success continued over the following weeks, at least in the U.S., whereModern Warfare 3was the best-selling game in November despite being released almost halfway into the month. According to the latest market highlights from Circana, the newCall of Dutygame outperformed recent heavy-hitters such asMarvel’s Spider-Man 2and theSuper Mario RPGremake on a dollar sales basis during the observed period. Elaborating on this data point, Circana Executive Director Mat Piscatella noted how this is the fifth year in a row that aCall of Dutygame was November’s best-selling title in the world’s largest gaming market.
And while there is no indication that the latest franchise entry outsold its immediate predecessor, Activision has been quick to point out thatMW3broke several notable player engagement records for theModern Warfarereboot trilogy. Circana’s recent market highlights strengthen that claim, with the data analytics company estimating that the Call of Duty HQ launcher had the second-highest number of monthly active stateside users on both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in November 2023. The app was hence only behindFortnitein this respect.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
However, figuring out how many of those monthly users have actually boughtModern Warfare 3is far from straightforward. That’s primarily because the launcher incorporates not just the latest series entry, but alsoModern Warfare 2andWarzone, the free-to-play battle royale spin-off previously known asWarzone 2.0. Granted, Activision did advertise the newest game to all users of the launcher quite aggressively, to the point that itsModern Warfare 3marketing push in CoD HQ stirred quite a bit of controversy. But it is still plausible thatMW3would have ranked lower in monthly active stateside players were it not sharing a launcher with Activision’s other two titles powered by the IW 9.0 engine.
CoD: MW3 Dominated Stateside November Sales Despite Poor Reviews
This massively successful launch month is all the more impressive in light of the fact thatModern Warfare 3debuted as the worst-rated mainline game inCall of Dutyhistoryby some margin. And though the contrast between its poor review scores and sales could be indicative of the series' immense brand value, the gap between the game’s critical and commercial reception actually mimics the difference in quality between its single-player and multiplayer elements; while the former were largely responsible for its lackluster reviews, the latter were what actually drove earlyModern Warfare 3sales.
Either way, the game’s launch month dominance is a strong indicator thatCall of Dutyremains as relevant as ever. Time will tell whether the series manages to maintain this momentum throughout its third decade of existence, but Activision seemingly has little to worry about for now.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
WHERE TO PLAY
The war has changed. Call of Duty returns with an all-new campaign, modernized versions of classic Multiplayer maps and an open-world PvE Zombies experience. The campaign, a direct sequel to the record-breaking Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, sees Captain Price and Task Force 141 face off against ultranationalist war criminal Vladimir Makarov as he extends his grasp across the world. In Multiplayer, the 16 maps that launched with Modern Warfare 2 in 2009 return with upgraded graphics, new modes and innovative gameplay features. In Modern Warfare Zombies, team up with other squads for the first time ever as you work together to survive in the largest Zombies map yet
