Activision Blizzard’s latest military shooter has broken a number of sales records… sort of. Activision and Treyarch announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launch sales hit a record high, in the digital department. The physical release, however, is at an all-time low.

While sales numbers have not officially been revealed in the past, Activision “let slip” via a press release that their newest title has broken their digital sales record. Activision states that digital launch-day sales of the game, which was developed by Treyarch, has surpassed Call of Duty: World War II – an incredible feat! On top of that, the game also set a record for the highest selling Activision game of all time on Xbox One.

Furthermore, while this was the first Call of Duty title on Blizzard’s Battle.Net launcher, Black Ops 4 launch sales on PC doubled on launch-day, compared to Call of Duty: World War II. Of course, having double the sales may not always result in having double the active player base. Fortunately, this is not the case here. Activision also announced that player numbers who connected on the first day increased dramatically from Call of Duty: World War II. However, no specific numbers were revealed, “a dramatic” increase in activity is always a good thing for multiplayer-only titles. This is particularly evident, considering that Black Ops 4 became the best-selling launch day title on the PlayStation Store globally as well.

Call of Duty: World War II boasted incredible sales in 2017, breaking many of Activision and Sledgehammer Games’ records. However, as great as these sales numbers may seem to be, it should be noted that all reported figures do not include physical counts. In fact, Activision has not released any information on physical editions of the game for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launch. However, in the United Kingdom, the government keeps tracks of all sales in order to be tallied up for the official UK Sales Chart.

According to this sales chart, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 physical sales are down 50% from 2017’s World War II and 59% compared to Black Ops 3 before that. While exact sales figures are still a mystery, it is safe to assume that Black Ops 4 may not have sold the best overall, in Activision history. That said, it must also be noted that the current direction technology is going in, we might see the physical sales drop for more going forward, as digital starts to get an upper hand.

Whatever the case may be, a record-high is a record-high, regardless of where the records are being broken. Vamers is currently in the process of reviewing the game, and it definitely warrants the sales, for both Call of Duty aficionados and newcomers alike.

[Sources: Forbes, Gamespot,  Eurogamer, VG247]

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Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.