Joining very few titles such as Guitar Hero III and World of Warcraft, Call of Duty MW2 has also hit the billion dollar mark. Activision’s game made an estimated $550m in its first five days and sold more than 4.7 million copies in its initial 24 hours of release.

Previously the original Call of Duty Modern Warfare sold around 14.4 million copies in 2007, MW2 has surpassed this figure already with over 15 million sales.

According to industry body ELSA, the success of COD : MW2 has meant the game has won the best-selling videogame of 2009.

“The phenomenal success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was undoubtedly one of the leading entertainment stories of the year and firmly established videogames as one of the leading forms of entertainment in the UK,” said Michael Rawlinson, of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.