Activision has made over $3 billion in net bookings from the Call of Duty franchise alone over the past 12 months.
The company said the action series had set new records after shifting to a shared ecosystem business model, resulting in net bookings rising by 80 percent year-on-year and unit sales increasing by 40 percent over the same period.
To give you more context, 'net bookings' is an operating metric defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally and physically over a set period -- including license fees, merchandise sales, and publishing incentives -- and is equal to net revenues excluding deferrals.
As well as bringing home the bacon for Activision, Call of Duty also attracted 200 million players in 2020, including the biggest November ever for the franchise in terms of monthly players and hours played. Warzone, the series' free-to-play battle royale offering, has also surpassed 85 million players since launching on March 10, 2020.
"The momentum over the last year across the Call of Duty ecosystem from free-to-play Warzone as well as post-launch support of Modern Warfare, and now to Black Ops Cold War has been incredible," commented Byron Beede, EVP and general manager on the franchise. "We are focused on building a continuous pipeline featuring a tremendous amount of free, post-launch content and events across the franchise."