Battle-Tested Facts About Call Of Duty

Battle-Tested Facts About Call Of Duty


January 4, 2024 | Miles Brucker

Battle-Tested Facts About Call Of Duty


Call Of Duty is a video game franchise that originally started out as PC game, but later expanded to consoles. The game franchise has spawned many spin-offs, and has spent nearly 15 years as a leader in the highly competitive video game market.

Here are 24 battle tested facts about Call Of Duty.


1. Rolling Back Time

COD Black Ops was not only a huge success, it helped others regain some momentum. The game trailer featured the Rolling Stones hit  “Gimme Shelter". This lead to a temporary boost in Rolling Stones music sales.

call of duty

Advertisement

2. Modern Legend

COD: Modern Battle 3 is the fastest selling game of all time. The game sold 8.8 million copies in its first month, breaking every record set prior. In fact, the previous record was held by another game in the franchise, COD: Black Ops. It’s always good to stand on the shoulders’ of giants.

GettyImages-186952375.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

3. Money Maker

Modern Battle 3 made 775 million dollars in its first 5 days. That’s more than Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time. In fact, the COD franchise is worth more than Avatar, Titanic, and The Avengers combined.

Spider-Man Movies FactsPixabay

Advertisement

4. Time Is Money

Not only is COD a huge money maker, it’s also a giant time sink. According to information compiled over multiple platforms, Activision found that global players cumulatively spend the equivalent of 1900 years playing the game, every day. In the real world, empires have come and gone in that time.

GettyImages-633389358.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

5. Drone On And On

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV is a tool used to locate enemies on the map in COD. To avoid detection, players will often shoot down UAV’s. In fact, over 813 million UAV’s have been shot down across the entire franchise. Given the cost of a real life drone ($4.3 million), the cost of all those shot down UAV’s would be $3.4 quadrillion. That’s enough money to cover America’s federal budget over 5,000 times.

Call Of Duty FactsWikipedia

Advertisement

 

6. Time Is Money Part 2

So we know how much time is put into COD on a daily basis, but how much time have gamers racked up over the years? An astronomical 25 billion hours has been put into the game. That’s 2.85 million years, more time than humans have been around for.

Call_of_Duty_XP_2011_-_Modern_Warfare_3_Gauntlet_6114021888.jpgWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

7. Man Power

Activision has logged over 5 million players at once during the days of Black Ops and Modern Battle 2. That’s more than the population of Los Angeles. That’s more than the population of every US city, with the exception of New York. Success really is a numbers game.

GettyImages-464867754.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

8. Life Like

COD has always mixed in historical facts with fictitious story lines for their games, including using historical figures. Lawyers of the former Nicaraguan dictator Manuel Noriega filed a lawsuit against the game for using his likeness without permission, and portraying him as a murderous kidnapper. A murderous, kidnapping dictator? That’s unheard of.

460px-Noriega_Portrait.jpgWikipedia

Advertisement

9. Razor Sharp

A research paper published in Current Biology stated that people aged 18-25 who played action-shooters like COD had faster decision making skills. Next time someone tells you to play less COD, tell them you’re working on yourself.

GettyImages-477626526.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

10. Bear With Me

One of the longest Running COD Easter Eggs is a stuffed teddy bear. Many gamers have thought up countless theories as to why the bear appears in every game, but no one knows for sure. One theory is that one of the game producer's daughter passed at a young age and this teddy bear was her favorite toy.

Courtney Love factsPixabay

Advertisement

11. Propagandamn!

Footage of a destroyed, battle torn NYC was shown in a North Korean propaganda film. The footage was actually a cutscene from Modern Battle 3. That’s just hilarious.

Call_of_Duty_XP_2011_-_Modern_Warfare_3_Special_Ops_6114021408.jpgWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

12. Focus

Researchers found that people were better at finding target images in cluttered pictures after extended COD sessions. They also found that the game also helped with spacial awareness, improving your ability to drive a vehicle. We don’t recommend you mention this when doing your driver’s license test.

GettyImages-495887044.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

13. Some Men Left Behind

Though the franchise has released a staggering 15 titles, there are four that have never seen the light of day. These include COD:Vietnam, COD: Roman Wars, COD: Devil's brigade and COD: Tactics. These games were all moving away from the standard first person shooter offering a turn based game (tactics), a third person shooter (Vietnam) and top down army control (Roman Wars).

Thomas Seymour factsShutterstock

Advertisement

14. Not In The Cards

COD also almost made it into the tabletop gaming realm with its very own tradable card game. Despite getting a lot of positive feedback, the game was scrapped by developer Upper Deck Entertainment for unknown reasons.

26634163587_76b58fef32_b.jpgFlickr

Advertisement

15. Go Time

In 2012, Australian gamer Okan Kaya set a Guinness world record by playing COD for 135 hours straight. He was allowed a 10 minute break for every hour of gameplay, and he was allowed to bank those breaks to rack up a few hours of sleep during the session. The rest of it was powered by snacks and energy drinks.

GettyImages-1971168.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

16. Made In China

COD has a China only version of the game called Call Of Duty Online. Players are able to modify the appearance of their avatar through microtransactions, but the game itself is free to play. The game also has its own version of the zombies mode called Cyborg Rising. Something must have been lost in translation.

Call Of Duty FactsFlickr

Advertisement

17. Collectibles

COD has had many collectors’ items released over the years, but none have been as awesome as the limited edition Jeeps. Spanning several years, the COD Jeep Wranglers were branded with the COD logo inside and out. The price of DLC is getting way out of hand!

5456054043_9c3d1c5b51_b.jpgFlickr

Advertisement

18. Lend Your Voice

The franchise has had many famous actors lend their voices to the characters. Brandon Routh, Sam Worthington, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, and even Ice Cube have all voiced characters in the franchise, though not all once.

Call Of Duty FactsFlickr

Advertisement

19. Back To Your Roots

Though the game has veered away from its WWII roots. Robert Bowling, the creative director for Infinity Ward (a COD developer), said that the franchise could very well return to the battlefields of WWII in the future. Who doesn’t like aiming up Nazis?

Call Of Duty FactsFlickr

Advertisement

20. Ghostly

Many of the games feature ghostly easter eggs. Disembodied voices can be heard in several of the games, and even ghost characters can be encountered in certain secret rooms. We won’t tell you which ones though, you’ll have to figure that out yourself. That or you can just google it, but where’s the fun in that?'

Edward IV FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

21. Hollywood

Actors aren’t the only ones who get to help bring the COD games to life. Paul Haggis, the writer of Million Dollar Baby wrote script for Modern Battle 3, while David S. Goyer, the writer of Batman Begins wrote the script for Black Ops 2.

GettyImages-139300200.jpgGetty Images

Advertisement

22. M For Mature

Modern Battle was the first game in the franchise to earn an M rating, despite the game’s depiction of brutality throughout the series. The previous games were set in the past, and historical brutality is educational.

Call Of Duty FactsFlickr

Advertisement

23. Collateral Damage

In the German and Japanese versions of Modern Battle 2, players cannot hurt civilians. During the controversial airport level, the player simply watches as his comrades ending the unarmed civilians. If the player kills a civilian, the level restarts. This probably isn’t a bad thing.

Call Of Duty FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

24. Undeadening

The super popular Zombies mode of the game zfirst appeared in CoD: World At Battle. The German zombie ending minigame was so popular, it got its own game, and has been included as an optional play mode ever since. Everyone loves zombies.

Silhouette-Gun-Scary-Zombies-Girl-Halloween-Boy-2258609.jpgMax Pixel

Advertisement

25. It's Just a Game, Man.

A middle-aged man charged round to the house of a schoolboy and throttled him after his online Mark Bradford's character was gunned down by a 13-year-old, and "lost it" when the youngster goaded him over his online end. He confronted the youngster at the boy's friend's house by placing his hands round the schoolboy's neck, leaving him with scratches and bruising. Bradford admitted the attack was "moment of madness" as the child "would not shut up". Bradford pleaded guilty to one count of assault.My Teacher Just Lost It!Freepik, freepik

Advertisement

Sources: 12345

 


READ MORE

Our cruise ship skipped two ports because of lousy weather—but the cruise line refused us compensation. Is that standard practice?

Cruises don't guarantee port visits, nor do they give partial refunds for skipping ports due to bad weather.
May 19, 2026 Sasha Wren
Confused blond woman standing in front of a cruise ship.

My friend canceled on our cruise, and now I’m going alone and being charged a solo supplement. Can they do that?

Why do cruise lines charge a solo supplement? Learn why your price increases when traveling alone and whether cruise lines are allowed to do it.
May 20, 2026 Allison Robertson
Concerned woman standing in front of a cruise ship.

I prepaid for cruise excursions, and they were canceled. The cruise line says it was a “known risk” and won’t refund me. Can they do that?

Do cruise lines have to refund canceled excursions? Learn when you’re entitled to money back and what “known risk” really means for your trip.
May 19, 2026 Allison Robertson
The cruise ship 'Costa Concordia' lies stricken off the shore of the island of Giglio, Italy on January 14, 2012. More than four thousand people were on board when the ship hit a rock.

Cruise Ships: A Dark History And Deadly Disasters

For years, cruise ships were seen as floating condos for retirees—but in the past few years, the industry has begun to shed that image, with the average age of customers going down…and revenue going up. The industry is expected to make a whopping $30 billion in 2024. But cruises go back much longer than most people realize—and have a surprisingly dark history.
May 11, 2026 Samantha Henman
Upset woman using smartphone while waiting for her flight at departure area.

I arrived early, but still missed my flight due to long lines. They're only offering me a voucher, how can I get a full refund?

You planned ahead. You showed up early. You even skipped that overpriced airport breakfast sandwich because you wanted extra time to get through security. Then somehow, despite all your responsible adult behavior, you still watched your plane leave without you because the TSA line looked like a theme park ride designed by chaos itself. Now the airline is offering you a voucher instead of a refund, and suddenly your relaxing getaway has transformed into a customer-service survival game. Unfortunately, airlines usually don’t consider massive security lines their problem, even when half the airport seems trapped in them. That doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck, though. Between airline policies, credit card protections, and a few strategic moves, you may still have a shot at getting more than a glorified coupon for future stress.
May 18, 2026 J. Clarke
Distraught female passenger waiting at departure area.

I followed all the rules, but still got stopped at the border. Can they really just stop anyone?

A lot of travelers assume border crossings work like airport security with a passport check thrown in. In reality, crossing into another country is more like asking permission than exercising a guaranteed right. Even if you have valid documents, a return ticket, hotel reservations, and absolutely no record, border officers still have broad authority to question you, search your belongings, and decide whether you’re admissible.
May 16, 2026 J. Clarke