Fortnite and PUBG may have had their time in the spotlight, but it seems that it is now Call of Duty’s time to shine. On October 1st, Call of Duty Mobile launched with over 100 million downloads in its first week. According to mobile app analytics Sensor Tower that is a record-breaking amount of downloads. For comparison, PUBG Mobile saw 28 million downloads in its first week, while Fortnite saw 22.5 million.
The largest amount of Call of Duty Mobile’s installs came from the U.S. with about 17.3 million (or 16.9%) downloads. India came in second with 13.4%, while Brazil took third with 7%. Call of Duty’s skyrocketing success on the mobile platform may not have even reached its full potential yet either. Activision has yet to gain approval by China to launch the mobile title. Mobile games are extremely popular in China, meaning approval could lead to a huge influx of downloads from Chinese players.
According to the Wall Street Journal, China and Activision are currently in talks to get the title to the Chinese market. China makes up approximately 25% of the total mobile game market. China is also notoriously strict when choosing what games to allow in their country. In fact, home gaming consoles were banned entirely from mainland China from 2000 to 2013. So, publishers have quite a lot of work to do if they want their products to reach this large market.
Regardless, Call of Duty Mobile seems to be off to an astronomically successful start. The title is blowing recent mobile launches such as Mario Kart Tour completely out of the water. I think everyone is waiting to see exactly how far this game can go.
