Call of Dutyis a franchise where strong launch sales have become the norm, but fan fervor forCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2is proving palpable as the new title is significantly outperforming its 2021 predecessor,Call of Duty: Vanguard. It isn’t abnormal for the long-running series to experience these kings of ebbs and flows in sales following thedominance of theBlack OpsandModern Warfaregames, due to the series pushing 20 years on the market and the changing state of sales as digital becomes dominant. However, it hasn’t taken away fromCall of Duty’s overall popularity with players and, as sales show, the love forModern Warfareis still alive and well.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2is the fifth title in theModern Warfaresub-franchise and second in the rebooted series, picking up after the events of 2019’sModern Warfare. The campaign once again follows Capt. John Price, along with the newly formed Task Force 141, as they investigate a possible terrorist plot being added by a notorious Mexican drug cartel. On the multiplayer side, players have the option to hop into either Core Map modes, offering a more traditional 6v6Call of DutyPvP experience, or Battle Map modes, for players looking to enjoy bigger maps with matches of 32v32.
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While the full game has only been out for four days as of this writing, physical sales are proving to be a vast improvement from 2021’sVanguard. GamesIndustry.biz reportsModern Warfare 2is outpacing physical sales of the World War 2-eraCall of Dutyby 42%, whichActivision blamed partly on the game’s setting.Modern Warfare 2is outpacing 2020’sBlack Ops: Cold War, as well, though only by around 10% given theBlack Ops' series own popularity with players.
The strong sales speak to the overall popularity of theModern Warfareseries which, some players would argue, madeCall of Dutythe juggernaut in gaming it is withCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As mentioned above,Call of Dutyruled the sales charts for the first half of the 2010s, with entries selling roughly 20 million physical units and establishing itself as a marquee brand in the greater entertainment industry.Black Ops 2even hit the sales charts againin July 2022 with surprising strong sales in the United Kingdom during said month.
GameIndustry’s report does account for the series' overall decline from those days, which players can argue isn’t surprising due to a combination of the franchise’s age, less-popular entries such asInfinite Warfare, and the rise of digital sales. The latter is the most wide-reaching reason for the decline of physical game sales as more players switch to online retailers like Steam and the Epic Games Store, eliminating the need for physical games. Streaming services such as the newPlayStation Plus Extraand Xbox Game Pass have also eaten into the need for purchasing games outright, thanks to a revolving collection of major titles.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2is currently available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
