Call of Duty tends to get a bad rap, sometimes justified, as seen with the recent Modern Warfare 3. One of the more underwhelming titles in the franchise was Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, set during World War 2. Activision Blizzard even admitted in its 2021 annual report that it didn’t meet expectations.
However, Brian Hong, who formerly worked as a social media strategist at Activision, claims the shooter sold 30 million copies on his LinkedIn profile (as discovered by Timur222 on Twitter). This isn’t an official figure, but if remotely close to the actual sales, it does hint at how high the publisher’s expectations were. It also puts the success of 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which became the fastest title in the franchise to earn $1 billion in revenue, into further perspective.
Sledgehammer Games was reportedly keen on a sequel to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare after Vanguard, but that didn’t happen. Instead, it worked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which received extensive criticism for its short campaign, Open Combat Missions, and story. Check out our review for more details.