Battlefield 3 certainly did not take away interest from the Call of Duty franchise. With Black Ops still being played more online than BF3 after it released and selling 15 million copies this year alone, is it any surprise then that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 marks the third year in a row that Activision has broken the day one launch record from not just video games, but all forms of entertainment?

Despite criticisms from a vocal minority and a pile of angry users running to Metacritic to unleash the keyboard fury, knocking its user review average down to 2.6/10, Modern Warfare 3 is hitting the right note with the majority of gamers and because of the demand, the Call of Duty Elite service hasn't been able to support the numbers and is suffering from some major bugs.

Take one of the biggest brand names in video gaming, throw in celebrity-filled marketing with a trailer starring Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill and a sprinkle a little mainstream media coverage with Jay Leno and boom, Activision has another worldwide record breaker in a Call of Duty title.

Shattering its own day-one sales records, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, announced that its highly-anticipated Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 3 has become the biggest entertainment launch ever with an estimated sell-through of more than $400 million and more than 6.5 million units in North America and the United Kingdom alone in the first 24 hours of its release, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick emphasizes that this record was hit with only two regions so it's even bigger. In fact, the demand for Modern Warfare 3 is so high that it has armed gunmen planning heists and people trying to rob others at midnight launches to avoid line-ups.

Like we asked last year when Treyarch successfully launched Black Ops, will Treyarch be able to beat MW3 with their next title? It's already confirmed that another Call of Duty is coming in 2012, and we previously heard about Treyarch hiring more staff for bringing their next game to a new console, hinting at a next-gen CoD development... or just a Wii U release.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is available now for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PC.

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Source: Activision