Modern Warfare 2: Most Successful Entertainment Launch Ever

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been crowned the most successful entertainment launch of all time by the Guinness World Records.

With day one sales reaching more than $401.6m USD, Modern Warfare 2 was the fastest-selling entertainment product in its first 24 hours of sale, eclipsing the record previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV.

“Video game releases such as the Call of Duty series have outperformed the launches of major Hollywood blockbusters for several years and the day-one sales for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 proved once again that video games have become cultural events in their own right,” said Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition editor, Gaz Deaves.

“The fan movement and hype surrounding this game in the run-up to launch was almost unprecedented in scale; we acknowledged early on that the big question wasn’t if it would break all-time entertainment records, but rather by how much.”

As if that wasn’t enough cash in Activision’s pocket, the recently-released Stimulus Package map pack for the game has also proved popular. Find out what we made of it in our column, here.