There is no denying that the Call of Duty franchise has been hugely successful for Activision. Back in December, the company announced that the franchise had made over $3 billion over the last 12 months. And now, perhaps to no one's surprise, it's been reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the highest earning premium game of 2020.

According to SuperData, a research analytical firm, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which originally released in 2019, made roughly $1,913 million last year, putting it right at the top of the chart for highest earning premium games of 2020. Aside from it obviously being a very popular title in an already popular franchise (as well as a reboot of the Modern Warfare subseries), it managed to earn this thanks to the battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone, which released in March 2020.

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Though Warzone is free-to-play, players could upgrade to Modern Warfare through it, meaning the game was able to reach a new audience. What's more, the lockdowns brought about by the coronavirus pandemic contributed to the rise in players, with many people forced to stay at home to help prevent the spread of the virus. This eventually led to Modern Warfare becoming the best selling Call of Duty game of all time.

SuperData's report reveals that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War also made it into the top ten highest earning games of 2020, having accrued about $678 million. This is particularly impressive considering Black Ops Cold War only released two months ago in November. It even managed to outperform Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which released much earlier in March.

Other games within the top ten include Grand Theft Auto 5FIFA 20, and both NBA 2K20 and NBA 2K21, which are consistently financially successful titles. Cyberpunk 2077 managed to reach number eight despite only coming out in December, which is hardly surprising considering it was a massive sales success even before it launched.

Warzone Black Ops Cold War sales

With all three current Call of Duty titles being integrated with each other, it's likely that this success will continue throughout 2021. However, despite all the money these games are making, the player-base seems to be routinely frustrated and disappointed with them. There have been recurring complaints of bugs, glitches, and other issues that hamper gameplay, especially the online.

The recent integration between Warzone and Cold War has led to a variety of new issues that are plaguing players at the moment, and one weapon is considered so powerful, that many players find Warzone to be borderline unplayable in its current state.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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Source: Charlie INTEL, SuperData