Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s season 1 battle pass arrived last month and it already seems it’s been a big success for publisher Activision. Market intelligence provider SuperData says the decision to try out the new battle pass and microtransactions business model for the game has “paid off”.
In a blog post looking at the worldwide digital games market for December 2019, the research company lists the top ten grossing titles by category (“worldwide, ranked by December 2019 earnings”), in which Modern Warfare comes seventh for PC. In a following write-up, SuperData says: “A gamble on a new business model paid off for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”
Moving from season passes and paid map packs – used in previous Call of Duty series titles – to monetising “exclusively through battle pass sales and microtransactions”, has meant Modern Warfare’s revenue in Q4 2019 was 4% higher than Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 during its launch quarter.”
Modern Warfare sales were eye-wateringly high at its launch on December 3, with the FPS game’s figures hitting $600 million in just three days, but according to SuperData its first month of in-game content sales were pretty astonishing, too. “In December 2019, the first month Modern Warfare players could purchase in-game content, spending reached $78.7 million”, it reports.
Consumer spending on digital games reached an all-time high of $9.8B in December 2019, up 8% year-over-year. Discover the latest trends in digital games in our digital games market update: https://t.co/Fd0fi90ILs pic.twitter.com/mih9RQ30IY
— SuperData (@_SuperData) January 23, 2020
This was almost as much as was spent on its predecessor Black Ops 4’s in-game content during the title’s “entire first quarter”, which came to $92.9 million. Phew.
Given there’s a special “one-time extension of Season One” to come for the game before the Modern Warfare season 2 release date arrives, perhaps we’ll see that figure continue to rise for the first season battle pass.
If you’re a fan of Infinity Ward’s shooter, you might find our guides to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare weapons, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare classes, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Operators handy in staying up-to-date with the game.