Call of Duty: Black Ops has been nothing short of a juggernaught since its launch. Even before it launched it was making headlines as demand was so high that one gamer refused to wait and broke into an Alabama pressing plant a few weeks before release and stole a handful of copies of the game. Desperation reached new heights just a few days before the game's release when a GameStop in Baltimore was held at gunpoint and 100 copies of the game were stolen.

Not even Activision predicted this much demand for Black Ops. When the game was finally released on November 9th, 2010, it was met with both critical acclaim and record breaking sales. Within hours of its release over 1 million players were already getting busy racking up kills online, and in the first 24 hours it sold a record breaking 5.6 million copies. Its next record to break was for 5 day sales, which it cleared by $100 million. This of course was just a precursor to its milestone $1 billion in sales, which was also reached in record time. After all that, it came as no surprise when Black Ops was announced the best selling game of 2010 by NPD group.

All these numbers bring us to today, when Activision and Treyarch have decided to share some of their own numbers. Devout fans of the game have invested hours upon hours into the game and now the sum of their staggering achievements, up until January 28, 2011, have been compiled into an easy to read chart. Click for a larger version.

Black-Ops-Stats-Chart image

There are a few important things to take from this diagram of statistical delight. The RC-XD is clearly the most popular of all the new additions to the game, leading every other killstreak reward in kills. Marathon and Lightweight are among the most popular perks, which may come as a surprise since Commando didn't make a return. This in itself is indicative of the perceived importance of mobility in Black Ops multiplayer. Finally, unlike the real world, flying is definitely not safer than driving in Black Ops.

Call of Duty truly has become a cultural phenomenon, and its not likely to die down any time soon. Treyarch has committed itself to working on Black Ops content for the time being, perhaps in an effort to maintain Activision's promise of the largest line-up of digital content ever offered to the Call of Duty community.

Infinity Ward's next installment in the franchise is still on track for a November 2011 release now that they have enlisted the aid of Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. Sledgehammer is reportedly assisting with the campaign portion of the game while Raven Studios focuses its energy on the multiplayer component. Rumored to be a Modern Warfare prequel centered around Ghost from Modern Warfare 2, the title hasn't still been confirmed, but speculation currently stands that this title is Modern Warfare 3.

So much has happened over the last year that it almost seems impossible to keep track of this massively successful franchise. While Game Rant continues to cover the news, Treyarch will continue to track Black Ops' amazing stats, which will no doubt be pushed to even greater heights thanks to the release of the First Strike map pack.

If these numbers aren't impressive enough, you can contribute to making them even greater by taking part in the Black Ops double experience weekend starting this Friday, February 4, 2011.

What do you think of these unbelievable Call of Duty: Black Ops statistics? Are you surprised by the game's record breaking successes?

Call of Duty: Black Ops is available for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Wii.