Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops II earned more than $500 million during its first 24 hours on sale. The milestone handily beats last year’s $400 million launch of Modern Warfare 3 and more than doubles Halo 4’s $220 million launch last week.

"With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. "Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for Harry Potter and Star Wars, the two most successful movie franchises of all time."

While Activision hasn’t revealed the specific number of copies sold, we know that at least 1 million copies were sold at GameStop midnight launches when it launched on Tuesday. Black Ops II will be released on Wii U on November 18th.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

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