The physical disc sales of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in the United States during November were slightly lower than half that of Black Ops III last year, according to newly received data.
The NPD (National Pocket Diary) Group’s monthly sales report was recently shared with potential investors (we’ll be given a glimpse of a portion of it next week), but Cowen lead analyst Doug Creutz revealed the official figure in a note to investors.
Infinite Warfare units came in 17 percent shy of our expectations, down close to 50 percent [year-over-year]
CNBC confirmed this news with another source that NPD data shows a staggering 51 percent downfall for physical Call of Duty sales in the month of November 2016 when compared to the same in 2015. Physical sales in the UK were also at a low, at least during launch.
Now here are two important points to note regarding this sales drop. As was noted above, the report only covers the game’s physical sales; digital sales were always projected to be in the higher stands, which will definitely help to neutralise this massive decline to some extent. In addition to that, Activision has offered what’s arguably Call of Duty’s best ever limited edition edition incentive with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. This remastered edition of the fan loved Call of Duty 4 is not sold by itself, it only comes with the legacy edition or digital deluxe edition of Infinite Warfare. The cheapest of those editions costs about $80, and that significantly higher price tag will also help Activision to deal with this reported physical sales decline.
Activision Blizzard always expected Infinite Warfare to sell in lower numbers than Black Ops 3. Black Ops has always been the brand name that Call of Duty players tend to lean towards. Despite the preparations, they still weren’t ready to face the drop which occurred for IW. The company’s stock price has declined about nine percent over the last month, currently standing at $36.60. That’s roughly $9 less than where it was in mid-October.
