Call of Duty trumps Battlefield

For the third year in a row, Activision's new Call of Duty game has set a 24-hour record, with Modern Warfare 3 racking up 6.5 million sales in North America and Europe alone in its first day on the shelves.

The sales equate to over US$400 million in revenue. Last year's effort, Call of Duty: Black Ops, sold 5.6 million units for US$360 million.

Rival shooter Battlefield 3, which went on sale in October, sold 5 million copies in its first week.

Call of Duty titles are estimated to account for a third of Activision's annual revenue.