'Destiny' sets sales record, makes over $300 million in its first week
Over $500 million worth of copies of Destiny were shipped to stores in anticipation of the game’s release last week. And with today’s newly announced sales figures, it looks like Bungie’s latest franchise is off to an impressive start.
Activision revealed today that Destiny sold-through more than $325 million worldwide in its first five days on sale. The phrase “sold-through” denotes the amount of games actually purchased by consumers rather than simply shipped to stores. That impressive number means the game can hold onto the “most successful new video game franchise” title that Activision boasted last week. A specific number of copies sold was not announced.
Bungie said that in the game’s first week, players logged more than 100 million hours of online play. CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg said this level of engagement is on par with the company’s Call of Duty series, traditionally one of the most popular titles every year a new entry is released.
This figure represents a huge haul and puts Destiny on track to be one of the most successful entertainment releases of the year. For reference, only one film this year has made more than $300 million, and that was another space-set property, Guardians of the Galaxy. It still took that film over a month to do so.
Destiny may have launched last week, but the game’s experience will continue to be updated with new content in the weeks and months to come. Read EW‘s thoughts on the game so far in our Destiny journal.
