Metal Gear Solid V made twice as much as Avengers: Age of Ultron on its launch day

Hideo Kojima’s video game swansong was twice as successful on its release day than the sequel to one of the biggest movies of all time.

That’s according to a new Adobe Digital Index report (as reported by VentureBeat) which estimates that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain raked in $179 million (116m) worldwide upon release on September 1st.

Comparatively, Avengers: Age of Ultron generated $84 million (54m) when it hit silver screens around the world earlier this year.

The original The Avengers (Avengers Assemble here in the UK) is the third-highest-grossing film of all time. But even the first Avengers pulled in ‘just’ $81 million (52m) on its first day.

This becomes an even more impressive figure when the budget for each output is compared; MGSV’s cost has been rumoured at approximately $80 million (52m), while Age of Ultron cost over triple that figure, $250 million (161m).

The interest in each product was similarly reflected in their social media presence. Metal Gear Solid V saw around 79,000 social media mentions on release date, while Age of Ultron once again saw roughly half that number: 41,000.

The gaming industry is a lot bigger than most marketers realise,” Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst and director at Adobe, commented in the report.

These games get more social buzz on opening day than most movies do, and the revenue for one of the top games this year outdid the highest-grossing movie start [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’s $91 million (59m)] by nearly double.”