PlayStation has confirmed via its official Twitter account that the recently released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had the biggest launch ever of any Call of Duty game on the PlayStation store. By 'launch,' it's specifically referring to the total number of pre-orders and day-one sales. This is most likely only in regard to digital sales, as physical sales can be difficult to track so early-on.
The Call of Duty series is known for its mass-market appeal and its frequent dominance of the annual sales charts. A Call of Duty game has been the yearly best-selling title nearly every year since 2010, the rare exceptions coming only from Rockstar-developed games, those being GTA V in 2013, and Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. The most recent public reports place Call of Duty as the 4th best-selling video game franchise of all time, behind only Mario, Tetris, and Pokémon.
Though this is only one of the three platforms Modern Warfare 2 is available on and may only account for digital sales, the fact that it had the biggest PlayStation launch of such an already prolific series does suggest that the demand for this title is staggering, and it may end up being the best-selling game in the entire franchise.
That honor is currently held by 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at over 30 million units sold, so it wouldn't be surprising for its sequel this year to surpass it. Both entries are reboots of the similarly named Call of Duty titles of the 2000s, and 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was one of the most popular games in the franchise's history. Sales for this year's Modern Warfare 2 might also be getting boosted by the PlayStation 5 bundle that Sony is currently selling. Though supply is reportedly set to increase, this bundle has been one of the few ways fans have been able to easily order a PlayStation 5 directly to their home.
As of September, Elden Ring sits as the best-selling game of the year so far, last reported to have reached over 16 million sales. It's not impossible for Modern Warfare 2 to surpass it, even with only two months on the market, and this early tidbit of sales info indicates that it might just happen. It also further shows why Sony and PlayStation are fighting so hard to prevent the Xbox and Activision deal to go through, as Sony gets a 30% cut of every Call of Duty sale on its PlayStation Store.