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Activision Claims ‘Biggest Entertainment Launch’ of 2015 with $550 Million for ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops III’

Eat your heart out, “Jurassic World.”

The biggest box-office hit of 2015 may have been eclipsed by videogame “Call of Duty: Black Ops III,” which collected $550 million worldwide in its first three days since its Nov. 6 release. Which had Activision roaring like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“The Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 launch is bigger than any game, any movie, or any entertainment launch this year. But more importantly, our fans are engaging more deeply with the franchise than ever before. In fact, so far, people are playing Black Ops III for more hours per player than any ‘Call of Duty’ game on record,” said Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg. “Call of Duty is more than a game, it’s a year round passion for a growing base of millions of fans and it’s only gaining momentum.”

To compare to the monstrous number the game put up, This summer’s release of “Jurassic World” saw the biggest global box office weekend ever at $524.1 million.

While the $550 million number does include copies of the game sold, it is unclear if contributions to the number also came from selling the Playstation 4 bundle, which ran at $429.99. With more and more players moving up from the Xbox 360 and PS3 to the Xbox One and PS4, it is hardly a surprise that the annualized franchise took a leap forward in sales following the release of “Ghosts” and “Advanced Warfare.”

However, $550 million in three days is nothing to scoff at, the previous installment in the “Black Ops” series, “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” pulled in $500 million in sales after just 24 hours.

The franchise’s move to more of a focus on PS4 certainly paid off for Sony. “Black Ops III” became the best-selling digital full game by units sold in its first day on the Playstation Store in PS4 history.

Thanks to all this, Activision’s stock is up 2% to $34.63 in trading Wednesday.

This isn’t the first time that Activision has made this claim, however. Just last year they said the same thing following the release of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”

The first-person shooter genre has set more than one record this year. Last week Microsoft announced “Halo 5: Guardians” sold over $400 million worldwide between game and hardware bundle sales.

Activision has had a busy couple of weeks. Before the launch of “Black Ops III,” the company acquired King Digital for $5.9 billion and announced plans to move in to the movie and TV space developing properties based on their games.

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