Black Ops 4 Breaks Digital Sales Records; Physical Sales In UK Lowest In 11 Years

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is off to a fast start. Activision announced in a press release that the newest Call of Duty instalment broke Activision's record for the "biggest day one digital release" in the company's history. Digital sales of the Treyarch-developed shooter surpassed the previous digital day one sales record-holder, 2017's Call of Duty: WWII.

In addition to setting internal records at Activision, Black Ops 4 had the strongest day one digital full game sales on the PlayStation Store in its history. Black Ops 4 also broke the Xbox One record for best-selling digital game of all time for Activision. Both of these statistics cover the global market.

Black Ops 4 is also available on PC via Battle.net--and it was a success there as well. According to Activision, Black Ops 4 PC sales on Battle.net more than doubled the launch-day sales of Call of Duty: WWII, which was available on Steam. Black Ops 4, meanwhile, is available exclusively through Battle.net.

Across all platforms, the number of players who connected Black Ops 4 online on the first day increased from Call of Duty: WWII, though Activision did not provide any details on how dramatic the increase was.

Activision did not share any unit sales numbers--physical or digital--for Black Ops 4, and that's no surprise given that Activision and many other big publishers no longer share those details.

According to GI.biz, Black Ops 4's first-weekend physical sales in the United Kingdom were down almost 50 percent compared to Call of Duty: WWII and down 59 percent compared to predecessor Black Ops III. The site reported that Black Ops 4's first-weekend physical sales in the UK were the lowest since 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. A downturn in physical game sales is expected, given the industry is increasingly trending toward digital.

And as mentioned, Black Ops 4 had more players connecting online during its first day than Call of Duty: WWII last year, so more people are playing the game.

Black Ops 4 launched on October 12 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Unlike almost every previous instalment in the mainline franchise, Black Ops 4 does not feature a traditional campaign. It does, however, have an ambitious new mode in the form of the battle royale mode Blackout, which is Call of Duty's response to PUBG and Fortnite. The game also includes new storylines in the fan-favourite Zombies mode, which developer Treyarch created.

According to a Nielsen survey, Black Ops 4 is the most anticipated game of the holiday 2018 shopping season. GameSpot is currently playing Black Ops 4 for review, and you can check out our early impressions of Blackout, Zombies, Multiplayer, and more.