As the 2019 holiday shopping season ends, sales data reveals the gaming presents most found underneath player’s Christmas trees. While last year was an anomaly with the role-playing game Red Dead Redemption 2 winning the holiday season, holiday season 2019 was a return to the norm. Although results differ across the globe, the shooter Call of Duty Modern Warfare is still a resounding favorite. In particular, Activision’s flagship title had a strong showing in the United Kingdom.

The Data

According to gamesindustry.biz, Call of Duty Modern Warfare sales increased 42 percent the week before Christmas in the UK. While the popular soccer franchise FIFA experienced a 73 percent sales spike, it was not enough to dethrone CoD. In addition, Activision had two Crash games sneak into the Top 10 thanks to sales discounts.

Analysis

The looming question for Activision is how many of the new players will buy the Battle Passes. As discussed in October, Activision updated its CoD business model by replacing loot boxes with seasonal passes and paid DLC maps. The intent is for players to buy new content in a more traditional way as opposed to paying for cosmetic upgrades.

Next month’s Call of Duty World League should give insight into how well the season pass will sell. If the event draws a huge local and online crowd, the season pass should result in DLC purchases. Activision’s 4Q report will tell the story and can be expected around the first week of February 2020.

Conclusion

Call of Duty Modern Warfare still has a long way to go to surpass MW3′s 30 million units sold, but the strong holiday sales in the UK are a good start and show that players are still excited about the game. Time will tell if it becomes the best-selling in the series.

Will MW reach 30 million in sales? While most critics believe this is possible, we here at GamingROI are skeptical. Earlier in the year, Activision revealed that Call of Duty would replace the season pass with a “battle pass”. Because this new approach appears cosmetic, the surge in Modern Warfare sales will likely taper off as 2020 games launch. GamingROI will continue to monitor the latest Call of Duty sales, but the game still has a ways to go before becoming one of the best all time.