Physical launch sales of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 in the UK are vastly lower compared to last year's Modern Warfare 2.
Modern Warfare 3 hasn't been too well received by the community. The game received backlash over its short campaign, and concurrent player numbers, as well as reviews, aren't to be written home about. This 'negativity' could also be seen in the boxed sales numbers in the UK, where initial launch sales for the title are 25% lower compared to the previous entry in the series - 2022's Modern Warfare 2.
As reported by GamesIndustry's Christopher Dring on X (formerly Twitter), the majority of physical sales came from the PS5 version with the Xbox version only accounting for 20% of boxed sales. Of course, this only includes boxed sales numbers in the UK, and digital numbers will change actual launch sales numbers across all platforms. Interestingly, as also noted by Dring, physical sales refer to sales of physical products, and digital codes for the game included with the PS5 bundle also count as physical.
UK Physical data (GfK) has Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s launch sales as 25% lower than last year’s Modern Warfare 2. 72% of sales on PS5, 20% on Xbox and 8% on PS4. Obviously, digital data will change all this.
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) November 12, 2023
It will be interesting to see how well Modern Warfare 3 has been selling at launch in other regions. We'll update you as soon as more information about the game's global sales comes in. In the past, Activision-Blizzard used to be pretty public about sales numbers, but with the company now having merged with Microsoft, it remains to be seen if sales numbers will be shared.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is available globally now for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. As reported last week, the game is said to have been made in only 1.5 years, whereas previous entries took roughly 3 years to make. Also, it was reported that developer Sledgehammer wanted to make a sequel to 2014's Advanced Warfare instead. According to Sledgehammer, however, fans wanted to stay and play longer within the same series. As such, the decided to make the first true sequel in the franchise's history.
