Activision's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" has hit the $1 billion sales mark in 16 days, faster than all-time box office champion "Avatar," the company announced Monday.
The sales surge came during a box office slump, as this weekend was the slowest at movie theaters since September 2009.
Also read: Weak 'New Year's Eve' Leads Worst Box-Office Weekend Since 2008
"Engagement of our Call of Duty audience continues to rise around the world," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "'Call of Duty' as an entertainment franchise has made an indelible mark on popular culture and its broad and continued success is further validation that audiences are now valuing interactive experiences over passive experiences."
"Avatar" took a whole 17 days to get to $1 billion.
The Call of Duty Elite online service has registered six million players since its launch Nov. 8, and sold more than one million premium subscriptions, said Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. The premium subscription services of Netflix, Hulu Plus, Sirius XM and Xbox LIVE each took a year to reach one million paid subscribers, Activision said.