Call of Duty: Black Ops reportedly breaks one-day sales record

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the fastest-selling video game of all time – to the tune of over 7 million units sold – according to an early analysis by the gaming site VGChartz. That makes the launch of Black Ops even more successful than the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the last installment in the popular Call of Duty franchise – and the most successful entertainment launch ever.

"If the 7 million for Black Ops holds true, it would make the launch around 10 percent larger than Modern Warfare 2 and the biggest of all time," Brett Walton of VGChartz wrote earlier today. Walton breaks down the 7 million thusly: 3.6 million units in the US, 1.4 in the UK, "over a million units in continental Europe," and 350K units in Canada. 59 percent of Black Ops units were sold for the Xbox 360; the rest were sold for the PS3, the PC, the Wii, and the DS.

Black Ops, unlike Modern Warfare 2, is set at the height of the Cold War. In the campaign mode, gamers steer special ops soldier Alex Mason through firefights in Russia, Cuba, and Vietnam, all the while unraveling the strands of a vast multi-national conspiracy. Black Ops has won extraordinarily high marks from reviewers, who have praised the game's high-voltage action scenes and the cinematic quality of the plot. (Read our Black Ops review roundup.)

"Call Of Duty: Black Ops is superb," Nick Cowen of the UK Telegraph recently noted. "The experience of playing the game, thanks to the modified World At War engine, is comparable to the best in what the franchise has had to offer up until now. The meaty kick of the guns, the blistering pace of the action and the sterling soundtrack of explosions, gunshots and whistling bullets all serve to quicken the player's pulse and tighten their grip on the controller."

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