Call of Duty Retail Sales Slump Again for the Third Year in a Row

It is sad to see a peaked huge blockbuster video game begin to decline, but it is inevitable. According to analyst Michael Olson from Piper Jaffray, the retail sales for the Call of Duty series have declined by 27 percent for each year over the past three years, which also includes declining pre-orders. Despite the fact that the series have sold better than other games, topping the NPD sales chart, it has unfortunately been slipping. It is especially clear when Advanced Warfare has sold less than half the first month sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in 2011.

However, Activision does state that the Pentagon-consulted Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare holds the title for the highest selling digital launch in console history, but that still does not mean that CoD has sold enough to recover from its slump. Luckily, the NPD report does not include the digital copies or international copies sold, so the slump is a lot less than presumed.

Unfortunately, shooters can remain innovative for so long before they stale, but that does not mean that Activision is going to fall anytime soon. Maybe there is an innovative system that has not existed yet for Call of Duty (excluding the not so innovative-Kevin Spacey technology and dog technology), but until then, we will more than likely see a future of continuing financial decline.