TL;DR: Analyst estimates say Activision’s modern PS4/PS5 ports of Black Ops II and I sold about 8.2M and 3.0M copies respectively-roughly $325M and $110M-totaling $435M and over 11 million copies on PlayStation in under a month, driven by nostalgia, strong PS Store rankings, and pent-up demand.
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Activision’s latest Call of Duty ports have sold multi-million copies on PlayStation, showing Microsoft’s willingness to use nostalgia where it counts.
Microsoft and Activision made a surprise move in July by releasing two decades-old Call of Duty games on PlayStation. Both Black Ops I and II were launched on modern PlayStation consoles for the first time, in the middle of a hot summer month, for an affordable $20-40 price. This was the first time these games have been playable on PlayStation since the PS3 era, and the potent combination of nostalgia and pent-up demand led to an explosion of sales and engagement.
Predictably, this led to massive sales; PS Store rankings showed high positioning for the Black Ops duo, and new estimates from Alinea Analytics indicate the games could have made over $400 million in sales on PS4 and PS5.
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“That pent-up demand detonated. As per our estimates, Black Ops 2 sold 8.2M copies on PlayStation (93% on PS5, 7% on PS4) for about $325M, while Black Ops 1 sold 3.0M (94% for $110M. Combined, that’s $435M on PlayStation in under a month,” Alinea analyst Rhys Elliott said in the newsletter
The move also shows Microsoft’s willingness to embrace nostalgia in a way that’s forward-thinking and investment-oriented. Launching these games on PlayStation opens up more monetization opportunities, as Call of Duty games are typically portals for microtransaction spending, while creating engagement points for PlayStation Plus active subscriptions
The original Black Ops II remains one of the best-earning video games of all time with $500 million earned in 1 day, and it would be interesting to see what those revenues are like today.
How many copies did Black Ops II and Black Ops I sell on PlayStation according to the article?
What proportion of PlayStation sales for Black Ops II and Black Ops I occurred on PS5 versus PS4?
Black Ops II: 93% of PlayStation sales were on PS5 and 7% on PS4. Black Ops I: 94% of PlayStation sales were.
Answered
Question #3
Does the article say how quickly the PlayStation sales figures were achieved?
How did PS Store rankings reflect the launch performance of the Black Ops ports?
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To date, the Call of Duty franchise has made well over $35 billion in total lifetime revenue.
