In addition to surpassing the $1 billion sales milestone in just six weeks, Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops from Activision is also setting online usage records that illustrate how the game has become one of the leading global entertainment experiences of all time.
Indicators such as social media, time spent online playing and retail sell through of Call of Duty: Black Ops are just a few of the signs pointing to an online phenomenon that took hold with the game's debut last month. The number of registered players exceeds the populations of such countries as Austria, Belgium, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and The Netherlands -- suggesting that the $1 billion sell through mark only at the level of dedication that players worldwide have for the game.
The total number of registered Call of Duty: Black Ops players:
* Is greater than the audiences that watched Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson in the U.S. for the entire week of December 6, 2010, combined.
* Exceeds the audience for the series finale of ABC's Lost.
* Trumps the average viewership for the 2010 Major League Baseball World Series.
* Exceeds the combined audited circulation numbers for Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Playboy, GQ, Maxim, Newsweek, Time, ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated.
* Would be the third largest state in the U.S.
Since its launch on November 9, Call of Duty: Black Ops players:
* Have played more than 600 million hours, or the equivalent of more than 68,000 years.
* Have turned out in numbers that could fill the 83 largest stadiums in the world, every day.
* Have spent an average of 87 minutes per day playing online, exceeding the 55 minute average that the average user spends on Facebook.
* Have made Call of Duty: Black Ops a top-five trending topic on Twitter, putting it on par with The Grammy Awards, Diego Maradona, The Chilean Miner's Rescue, The Boston Celtics and Mel Gibson.