Call of Duty appears to have peaked

It remains the powerhouse IP of modern console gaming, but figures suggest that Activision’s mighty Call of Duty IP is in decline.

Gamasutra reports that life-to-date sales of last year’s Modern Warfare 3 are tracking behind those enjoyed by predecessor Black Ops by an estimated 4.2 per cent.

In March alone it is believed that Modern Warfare 3 sales were around half of Black Ops’ March 2011 sales.

Analyst PiperJaffray sensibly speculates that the fall is mainly attributable to the rise in other sectors such as smartphone and casual gaming, which is claiming an increasingly large proportion of gamer’s monthly spend.

Modern Warfare 3 did at least maintain the series’ tradition of smashing records upon its release in November, though numbers suggested that it actually achieved a weaker debut than Black Ops did in the UK.