‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ ships more than $1 billion on launch day

There was never any doubt that Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts was going to be a financial success, and with launch day officially behind us, the first figures are in. The latest in Activision’s long-running first-person shooter franchise sold-in more than $1 billion to retail stores on its first day of release, the publisher confirms.

To be clear: this doesn’t mean that there’s $1 billion worth of Ghosts in consumer hands right now. “Sold-in” refers to the amount of product delivered by the publisher, Activision, into retailer hands. It’s more an expression of the faith that both the company and it s retail partners have in its product to sell than it is a reflection of actual sales. “Sold-through,” on the other hand, relates to physical sales, the amount of product that Joe and Jane Gamer walked into stores and actually purchased.

To put things in better perspective: Grand Theft Auto V celebrated $800 million in sales on the day it was released and more than $1 billion in sales by day three; both sell-through figures. There’s little question in anyone’s mind that the $1 billion worth of product in retail stores will be purchased and eventually restocked, but Ghosts‘ day one performance doesn’t quite scratch at the record set by Rockstar Games’ open world adventure.

There’s also no denying Ghosts‘ popularity. Despite having a Metacritic average the hovers in the mid-70s, the game rocketed to the top of Xbox Live’s usage charts on day one. It launched at midnight on November 5, 2013 in 15,000 stores around the globe and it dominated in the social media space, “with Call of Duty-related terms trending an astounding 20 times globally on Twitter in the last 24 hours,” according to the press release.

“Ghosts is an amazing game which ushers in the next generation of Call of Duty. The team at Infinity Ward has delivered yet another epic thrill ride in the campaign, and what I think is our best multiplayer game yet,” Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said in a statement. “This is the must have launch title for the next generation of consoles, and we expect Call of Duty: Ghosts to be the most successful launch title for the Xbox One and PS4 by a wide margin. In fact, according to GameStop, Call of Duty: Ghosts is their most pre-reserved next gen title.”

The game launched on November 5 for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 platforms. Next-gen releases for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are set to arrive on each console’s respective launch day: November 15 and November 22.