In the midst of The NPD Group proclaiming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare as the top-selling game of 2016 in the United States, Activision announced that the franchise was the best selling globally for last year. That’s based on revenue of course and marks the seventh time that Call of Duty has achieved this feat.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg stated that, “Call of Duty is the #1 console franchise worldwide in 2016. We’re thankful to our players for once again putting Call of Duty on top, and we recognize how rare this is – to do year after year.
“That’s why we push to deliver innovations and incredible gameplay that are worthy of the best fans in the world time and again. And we have an exciting year ahead in 2017.”
Of course, it should be noted that this is revenue for the franchise as a whole and it’s possible that another series won out in terms of unit sales. It also likely takes into account all the revenue earned from existing titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, micro-transactions, bundles and sales on backwards compatible games like Black Ops 2.