Infinite Warfare physical sales down 50% year-over-year in US, digital sales projected higher than BO3

A portion of the December NPD report was revealed to investors earlier, and investors speaking have revealed that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare physical sales are down almost 50% compared to Black Ops 3 physical sales in launch month.

Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said, “Infinite Warfare units came in 17 percent shy of our expectations, down close to 50 percent [year-over-year].”

NPD data only projects physical sales at retailers and does not include digital sales.

Additional analysts have projected Infinite Warfare’s digital sales are actually up 15% compared to Black Ops 3. They also noted that sales for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s micro transactions are expected to be higher this year compared to Black Ops 3, with 4 DLC Packs for Infinite Warfare still to come. In the last year, Activison Blizzard (across all titles) saw over $1 billion in revenue just from in-game content sales.

Additionally, Modern Warfare Remastered being bundled into the more expensive versions of Infinite Warfare is set to offset a lot of Activision’s losses for the year. The cheapest version to get both games at launch was $80, which might benefit Activision overall.

Activision Blizzard always expected Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s sales to be down compared to Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. During their Quarterly Earnings call back in November, Activision CEO stated that preorders are down year over year, and that overall sales would be lower for the title this year. But some are suggesting the actual drop in sales at retailers was more dramatic than expected. Activision Blizzard’s stocks have dropped 20% since October.

The full NPD data is expected to come this week.

SOURCE: GameSpot