Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been reported to have made more revenue in 2020 than both FIFA 20 and Grand Theft Auto 5. While this might not be surprising to some, the industry is surprised to see a game like FIFA 20 outperformed by an FPS – especially since sports games such as FIFA and NBA 2K usually dominate the top slot for earnings each year. Grand Theft Auto 5 has hung around the top slots for earnings each year since its smash release in September of 2013.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released in October of 2019 to positive reviews and a fanbase happy to see the franchise return to the beloved Modern Warfare badge. Activision approached the game’s post-release content model differently than it normally does, offering all DLC maps, modes, and equipment for free. They also adopted the “Battle Pass” format for its post-release content much like other popular multiplayer shooters, Fortnite and Apex Legends. In March of 2020, Activision released its own take on the battle royale formula in the Call of Duty: Warzone mode. Call of Duty: Warzone immediately became a smash hit amongst fans and high player counts can likely be attributed to periods of quarantine during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
According to an article released by Twinfinite, numbers released by research company SuperData have shown that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare earned a whopping $1.9 billion in 2020 since its release in March. This is a significant lead over the other podium finishes, with Fifa 20 coming in at $1.08 billion and Grand Theft Auto 5 sitting at $911 million. SuperData attributes Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s immense success on Activision’s execution of the hybrid game model approach between the classic Call of Duty experience and their titan swing at the game-as-service battle royale model.
Call of Duty: Warzone‘s success continues with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The extremely popular free-to-play battle royale acts as a bridge between the two Call of Duty installments and contains guns, map assets, characters, etc. from both releases. While Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War saw the usual sales success that the Activision flagship franchise achieves yearly, player focus has seemed to stick with Call of Duty: Warzone as it has been reported that the battle royale hit an average of 75 million players in the latter part of 2020.
Call of Duty: Warzone brings the crisp and responsive gunplay that makes players return to the franchise year after year to an entertaining and exciting battle royale formula. For many, it acts as a more accessible and polished version of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds and it seems like Activision has no plans to end support of the game mode anytime soon. This past Halloween, Activision even added a timed holiday mode known as Haunting of Verdansk which allowed players to combat and even become zombies to hunt down opposing teams. Combining properties from both games has caused some balancing issues with multiple guns that have been added by the new release, which Activision plans on addressing soon.
