'Call of Duty: Black Ops 4': Activision looks to impress with three-day numbers
With potential 2018 bestseller "Red Dead Redemption 2" on the approach, this year's entry to the "Call of Duty" action game franchise appears more popular and more engrossing than its predecessors, per its publisher, Activision.
An absent singleplayer storyline and a PC network exclusive on Battle.net have worked in favor of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4," rather than against it, according to an early Activision report.
Its initial three-day take of $500m USD puts October 12 debut "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" roughly on a par with predecessors "Call of Duty: WWII" (2017) and "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3" (2015), further implying that the relatively underwhelming performance of 2016's "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare" should be viewed as a blip rather than a trend.
And, without disclosing precise player counts across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC, Activision also disclosed that "Black Ops 4" achieved a higher number of concurrent players over that three-day period than any other franchise release.
In addition, average hours per player and total hours per platform are also up, an apparent validation of the choice to drop the franchise's traditional single-player campaign in favor of an expanded suite of multiplayer modes.
"Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" introduced the franchise's own interpretation of a last person standing Battle Royale format that has taken off since early 2017, most notably for "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" and then "Fortnite."
The "Black Ops 4" version, Blackout, functions both as the franchise's twist on the genre and a retrospective "greatest hits" tour of existing multiplayer arenas.
"Black Ops 4" was also the first time the PC edition of a "Call of Duty" game was distributed and networked through Activision's own Battle.net platform, rather than Steam.
While the publisher is in the habit of issuing early sales indicators in this manner, one factor particular to 2018 is the October 26 release of "Red Dead Redemption 2," which comes from "Grand Theft Auto" studio network Rockstar.
The Wild West epic is expected to become the year's biggest video game release, a status usually conferred upon "Call of Duty" itself, and "RDR 2" has been given a wide berth by several blockbusters-in-waiting -- even "Call of Duty" launched three weeks earlier than usual.
