{"id":70166,"date":"2014-11-02T14:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=70166"},"modified":"2014-11-03T06:47:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T04:47:36","slug":"biggest-video-game-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/70166-biggest-video-game-launches","title":{"rendered":"Biggest video game launches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When a new game releases and you rush to buy it (or eagerly await for your pre-order copy to arrive), there are thousands of other gamers doing the same thing. In the case of a really big title, that number turns to millions.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s when the millions of gamers collectively vote with their wallets that the publishers and developers celebrate, for they have played a part in the biggest video game launches in history.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at which titles have earned that honour.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 \u2013 Biggest Launch in CoD Franchise<\/h3>\n<p>Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the biggest Call of Duty release in the history of the franchise. The game launched on 12 November 2012 and managed to rake in $500 million in 24 hours. To put this into perspective, it is more than what The Dark Knight Rises grossed during its entire theatrical run ($448 million).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x3tedlWs1XY?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Watch_Dogs \u2013 Biggest Launch in Ubisoft History<\/h3>\n<p>Watch_Dogs launched on 27 May 2014 and went on to become the biggest launch title in Ubisoft&#8217;s\u00a0history. The game sold over 4 million copies in one week &#8211; compare this to Assassin&#8217;s Creed IV: Black Flag which hit 10 million sales after 5 months.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ulFeUCAI5xM?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Destiny \u2013 Biggest New IP Launch, Biggest &#8220;next-gen&#8221; Launch<\/h3>\n<p>Destiny launched on 9 September 2014 and managed to bring in over $500 million in just 24 hours. This made it the biggest new franchise launch in history. Destiny also won the honour of biggest launch title for Xbox One and PS4.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/clRpcIHpmoY?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Pok\u00e9mon X and Y \u2013 Biggest Exclusive Nintendo Launch, Biggest Platform Exclusive Launch<\/h3>\n<p>Pok\u00e9mon, no matter how much you may deny it, was the coolest thing in most people&#8217;s lives at one point. X and Y launched on 12 October 2013, selling 4 million copies in 48 hours &#8211; making it the biggest game launch in Nintendo&#8217;s history. To date, 12 million copies of the games have been sold.<\/p>\n<p>X and Y also take the title of biggest platform exclusive launch (it was available on the 3DS).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R5MdHgEdyos?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Diablo 3 \u2013 Biggest PC Launch, Fastest Selling PC Game<\/h3>\n<p>During its first 24 hours, even though no-one could play the game, Diablo 3 managed to sell over 3.5 million copies. After its first week Diablo 3 was sitting on 6.3 million copies sold, making it the fastest selling PC game in history.<\/p>\n<p>To date, Diablo 3 has grossed over $450 million.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/de2KlsLnIVU?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Grand Theft Auto V \u2013 Biggest Launch, Highest Grossing in 24 Hours, Quickest to Reach $1 billion<\/h3>\n<p>GTA V released on 17 September 2013 and was quickly snapped up by gamers all over the world. GTA V racked up $800 million in 24 hours, according to Take Two Interactive, and after three days in the market it has reached $1 billion.<\/p>\n<p>GTA V truly rules supreme &#8211; and now it&#8217;s coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hvoD7ehZPcM?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h6>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davidthier\/2012\/12\/05\/call-of-duty-black-ops-2-makes-1-billion-in-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\">Forbes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/investor.activision.com\/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=721903\" target=\"_blank\">Activision<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/2014\/04\/07\/pokemon-x-and-y-sales-pass-12-million-mark\" target=\"_blank\">IGN<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/bgr.com\/2014\/06\/03\/watch-dogs-first-week-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\">BGR<\/a><\/h6>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More gaming news<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/70110-be-afraid-be-very-afraid-prizes-inside.html\">Be afraid, be very afraid (prizes inside)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/70014-nvidia-geforce-gtx-range-sa-price-performance-comparison.html\">Nvidia GeForce GTX range \u2013 SA price, performance comparison<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/broadband\/70038-this-is-why-your-afrihost-adsl-connection-is-slow.html\">This is why your Afrihost ADSL connection is slow<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These games had a choice: go big, or go home. They chose to go big<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":70170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[23,667,2287,3308,21,577],"class_list":["post-70166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-call-of-duty","tag-diablo-3","tag-game-sales","tag-gta-5","tag-headline","tag-sales-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70200,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70166\/revisions\/70200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}