New 'Call of Duty' Breaks First-Day Gaming Sales Record

New Activision Blizzard (ATVI) video game "Call of Duty: Black Ops" has set a record for first-day sales, the company said Thursday. Within the first 24 hours of its release Tuesday, the game had generated about $360 million in U.S. and U.K. sales of 5.6 million copies.

The new title broke the $310 million record set by Activision's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" last year, Activision said. "Black Ops" will also likely break the five-day sales record of $550 million set by "Modern Warfare 2," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement.

The game's performance spells good news for a videogame industry that has been hampered by falling sales. Many cash-strapped gamers opted for either used games or free online titles instead of buying new games. As a result, gaming software sales for the first nine months of the year fell 8% to $4.93 billion, NPD Group said last month.

Activision said last week that third-quarter earnings more than tripled from a year earlier to $51 million as revenue increased 6% to $745 million.