On the 1st of October, Activision Blizzard Inc released the mobile version of its immensely popular Call of Duty franchise. Clearly, the nostalgia factor has worked in favour of the company as the game has been downloaded over 100 million times within just one week of its launch.
In contrast, the download count of PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends which are some of the most popular battle-royale games was 26.3 million, 22.5 million and 25 million respectively in their first week of release.
Randy Nelson, who is the head of mobile insights at Sensor Tower said that “This is by far the largest mobile game launch in history in terms of the player base that’s been built in the first week,”. Sensor Tower is an organic user acquisition service that helps app developers grow their audience using App Store Optimisation and app marketplace intelligence.
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While the original Call of Duty for consoles was a paid game, its mobile version is free to download and play but users can make in-app purchases to acquire visually appealing elements like skins for weapons and distinctive clothes.
The mobile version of Call of Duty is developed by the Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings LTD. The same company also holds a stake in PUBG mobile’s developer, Bluehole and Fortnite’s developer, Epic Games. Both these games can be credited for popularising the battle-royal format, in which a large number of players fight together to defeat the enemy and come out on top.
The 100 million download figure is the combined total of downloads on Android’s Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Notably, 17% of all the downloads were done users hailing from the United States which was followed by Indian users, where PUBG has a massive player base. The game is yet to launch in China where it is expected to see a positive response as well.
Activision has labelled 2019 as ‘transition year’ and it is currently bracing for the launch of its upcoming console edition of Call Of Duty which will launch on October 25. Some other game franchises that the game studio owns include “Candy Crush”, “Overwatch”, “Warcraft”, “Hearthstone” and “Diablo”.
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