Christmas came early this week for Activision Blizzard.
Despite releasing its new game, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” in the doldrums before the holiday shopping season, when videogame buyers are holding off on purchases, Activision moved 4.7 million units.
“Call of Duty” set an all-time record for a game launch, achieving Activision’s publicly stated goal, and brought in roughly $310 million.
The sixth installment of the popular combat game beat the previous single-day sales record set last year by “Grand Theft Auto IV” by one million units.
“These sales are from people who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the game,” said Jupiter Research’s Michael Gartenberg.
Activision Blizzard was created last year through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Blizzard, and is 57-percent owned by Vivendi.
According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, Activision pushed retailers to book pre-orders on the game in an effort to set the record.
Gamestop, for instance, held midnight launch events for people who pre-ordered the title in more than 4,000 of its stores.
Pachter said “Call of Duty” could eventually match or beat the all-time sales record of 24 million units held by the San Andreas version of “Grand Theft Auto.”