Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops dominate last week's Xbox Live activity

by David Hinkle on Dec 2nd 2011 2:00AM

We had a hunch -- okay, it was less a hunch and more an obvious thing to think, but here we are: Modern Warfare 3 has dominated Xbox Live activity on the week of November 21. When not chowing down on turkey and karate-chopping fools at Walmart over waffle makers, it seems most Xbox 360 players answered the call.

The second most-played game for the week was another Call of Duty game: Black Ops. It bested Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12, which took the remainder of the top five games played respectively. On the XBLA side, Pinball FX2, Super Meat Boy and Marvel vs Capcom 2 took top honors, thanks to Microsoft's "Fan Appreciation" sale.

Source: Major Nelson

Tags: activision, call-of-duty-black-ops, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3, major-nelson, microsoft, modern-warfare-3, xbla, xblm, xbox, Xbox-Live, xbox-live-arcade

Reader Comments (101)

No one plays Halo or Gears anymore?

And what about the stats for PSN?

@tendoboy1984

i do! those two and Battlefield make up 99% of my multiplayer gaming time.

@tendoboy1984

Gears 3 is 8th on the list, so that's hardly "no one." That's where I spend the majority of my Xbox time this fall. (I got Skyrim on the PC.)

@tendoboy1984 - If you want PSN stats, go ask Sony. I'm not aware they release stats.

@tendoboy1984 Modern Warefare 3 is crap, its like they have made the game with out taking into account the mistakes made by previous games in the series, the whole team is constantly killed by knobheads who think its funny to fire there rocket launchers at the start of the match in S&D, (whatever happened to ricochet to prevent this). I have also seen gamers use a hack, which kills everybody at the spawn, even the opposite team.

Also in 1 out of 3 games you join everybody (mostly clans) on the opposite team just constantly tubes towards the spawning area, when you do manage too kill them you only giving them back the tubes so they can do it again, giving you no chance of winning the game.

Oh and theres the spawn trapping which is the worse i have seen in a Call of Duty game. We were also promised that they would remove 'Last Stand' yet it still remains in the game.

Looks like i will be sticking to Treyarch's Call of Duty games from now on, at least they learn from these mistake's and give more support to the game.

@Omenege

It makes me sad to see Gears that far down though. Such a good game.

@tendoboy1984
Why would Microsoft be releasing stats for Playstation?

...see, this is what im talking about.

@tendoboy1984

98% percent of my gaming is Gears multiplayer. The skill curve makes it hard for COD kids to stay and play.

@davidmccue

I hope you get cancer.

The Call of Duty series is full of fun, enjoyable games that deserve all the praise they get.

That is all.

@An Irish Saint

I don't think anyone denies that they are fun, but they are the equivalent of a yearly Michael Bay movie. No one denies those Transformer movies were fun to watch either, but if people want video games to be considered a legitimate art then no, it does not deserve the praise it gets, in my opinion. Too often "fun" is used as a crutch. There is a difference between cheap thrills and a well made game all around after all.

@Mechazawa Prime

The moment I stop playing games to "have fun" or "be entertained" is the moment I want someone to punch me square in the face. If I wanted to behave in a way that had "artistic merit", I would write Andalusian pan-flute jazz and collect 18th-century German expressionist poetry.

@Mechazawa Prime
This.

@An Irish Saint
Wait, I thought all gamers did that?
Crap. Well, time to burn some poetry.

@Mechazawa Prime
Transformers wasn't fun to watch, nor were any of his other movies.

@An Irish Saint

I understand where you're coming from completely, but again my point was that there is a difference between cheap thrills like CoD, and a game that pushes itself to do something better than before. CoD does not do that. they release a what is essentially a reskin of the same game every year with tweaks minor enough to be considered patch or expansion worthy.

@Mechazawa Prime

I also want to make sure I never said you shouldn't play games for entertainment. That's the main reason for ANY medium. Above all all good books, movies, music, video games, and so on should be enjoyable, right? Of course, but it's the ones who push themselves be it in writing, technical aspects, acting, cinematography, and so on that really deserve praise though.

@An Irish Saint I wouldn't go as far as to say they deserve all the praise they get, especially with how broken this MW3 launch has been, but they're fun games when everything works right.

@An Irish Saint

This.

@Mechazawa Prime

there's room for both types of games. there are plenty of elder scrolls and Mass Effects out there to keep you busy...

@eat it

Wow..no I'm sorry. There aren't plenty of Elder Scrolls Skyrim out there. There's only one...and it destroys any game released this year.

That's a fact..not opinion btw. "God" called and told me to tell you that.

@An Irish Saint
This isn't really directed at anyone in particular in this thread, but I don't see why we can't have games with artistic merit and also be fun.

@Mechazawa Prime I'd argue that CoD, like almost any game, is art. You might think it's not GOOD art, but let's not minimize it too much. It certainly isn't drastically different than MW2, but the campaign had to be created, the maps designed, and all the other creative work done. If everything that's basically already been done can't be considered art, then Star Wars wasn't art - every basic element in that movie is person in ancient mythology.

This week I've been enjoying ICO, MW3 and Bejeweled 2.

I'm not sure which I dislike the most: the dumb neanderthal that despises artsy or creative games, or the pretentious asshole that looks down upon any game enjoyed by the masses.

@Pure Black World Tendency
the 2nd one

@Dickhole Pasta

Thank you. Makes me feel normal knowing there are gamers out there who aren't in love with the smell of their own farts. I think the internet just amplifies the worst part of our community

@Dickhole Pasta

I love you Pasta. That was so incredibly well put that I just needed to let you know that I love you.

(Not sarcasm).

@Dickhole Pasta

I never said there isn't a place for those kinds of game or that people shouldn't play them or they shouldn't exist. All I meant was that it's the ones who push themselves that deserve the praise. It's more about video game journalism as a whole being a joke than the games themselves. Joystiq is one of the only sites I like in that regard.

@Pure Black World Tendency

How about the cynical bastard stuck in the middle milling his options on where to direct his hate? All in good fun of course.

I again just want to be clear that I don't have a problem with "fun" games. I've owned most of the CoD games, I used to be a yearly buyer of Madden, and I own or owned all the Gears and Halo games. I'm not some mainstream despising hipster despite my ramblings about "artistic merit". It's just that I look at games with a critics eye almost all the time.

@An Irish Saint

They may be fun but they're almost EXACTLY THE SAME every 8 months!! And you fools keep shelling out a fresh $65 almost twice a year!

@An Irish Saint

You sir are awesome. I hope you win the lottery.

@Dickhole Pasta

You sir are also awesome. I hope that you also win the lottery and that your enemies die of cancer.

@whylekat

It it bothers you that we keep buying it because..........? What the hell is it to you what I spend MY money on?

MW2 is still beating Reach and Gears 3?

huh.

Based on the 48 hours that I owned MW3 (and the 2-3 hours I played it for), I'm not surprised to see Black Ops as #2. MW3 seems like a step backwards, something about it is off just a bit.

@CARmakazie

Lack of player cards, in game stat tracking, cod points, and equipment as its own place was kind of disappointing. It felt like a step back from BLOPS

Just beat 3's campaign an hour ago. To be honest, I think it was the dullest campaign out of every COD this generation. Although, I thought the last mission was pretty neat.

Still, I bought this game for the Spec-Ops modes, those are fantastic and you know, I like COD multiplayer. I think the hours I will spend on spec-ops and multiplayer will justify the title alone, regardless of campaign.

@LAZoftheTamarinds

I actually *kind of* found the current campaign to be slightly more memorable than MW2. That said, BO's campaign was better than both of them. Just my two cents...

@Brian Griffin

That's funny, because I hated Black Ops campaign with a vengeance and have really enjoyed the campaigns of all three MW games. Why did I hate Black Ops, you ask? Well, it could have been the "telegraphed from a mile away Fight Club rip-off reveal" or it could have been the dialogue ....

INTERROGATOR: Tell us the truth, Mason! What happened in Saigon?!

MASON: F*CK YOU, YOU PINKO COMMIE C*NT! I'LL NEVER F*CKING TELL YOU A GODDAMN C*CKSUCKING WORD YOU F*CKING F*CKHOLE!!!

INTERROGATOR: Tell me now!

MASON: You want to know about Saigon? Well, when the chopper landed it was a beautiful spring morning. Partly cloudy but that's to be expected of Saigon in March, you know? We were on a top secret mission to ....

@A Sandwich

TELL ME ABROUT RA NRUMBERS MRASON!!!

The unfair weaponry of MW3 won't roll for as long.
BlOps was really well balanced, and thus the best CoD game to date in my opinion. Although it should have more prestiges or something... I had finished my last prestige and unlocked everything in multiplayer before 600 hours.
I'm a PC gamer btw.

@Altrix - I still put CoD4 as the best game in the series but I think I'd put Black Ops number two. It was much more balanced than MW2 (I haven't played MW3 to comment on that).

While the campaign for MW3 was largely forgettable, and the MP maps have a severe "openness" about them that prevents any decent camping, I still find it pretty entertaining to play online. My one real gripe is there seems to be some real latency issues and problems finding the best host.

I've been in games where the rubber-banding is out of control, the game swaps hosts five times in five minutes, and 90% of the time you die seeing only a single shot fired when the guy unloaded about eight rounds at you in the deathcam replay. Some lousy netcode going on, it seems.

@freaparn

I'm glad you're having a hard time camping. I applaud a game that makes it difficult for the unskilled to rack up a ton of kills by hiding in dark corners and behind infinite claymores.

I'm honestly surprised this is news, slow day?

@Dubiousity

You're kidding right?

Joystiq wouldn't be Joystiq if they didn't put a MW3 post up daily that nobody cared about.

@Traptz

We could say the same about skyrim

@eat it

LOL..the fact you even consider MW3 to be on the same level as Skyrim is amazing.

Congrats on your delusion pills. The tests prove they work.

@eat it

And don't even try to compare Skyrim mod videos and funny ways to kill people to MW3 sales quotes.

@Traptz

You're right, the MW3 sales figures are actual f*cking news items. Skyrim videos are fun.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops dominate last week's Xbox Live activity

Reader Comments (101)

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:06AM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:13AM maveric101 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:07AM Omenege said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:59AM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 9:31AM davidmccue said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:20AM Vcize said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:22PM Klearwater Killer said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:23PM Master Troll said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:31PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:06AM An Irish Saint said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:11AM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:23AM An Irish Saint said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:24AM bloodlinejake said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:46AM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:56AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:18AM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:29AM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 4:13AM Oopacsunoo said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 5:22AM Brian Griffin said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 6:41AM eat it said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:35AM Traptz said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:40AM Epsilon said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:02AM maxwell97 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:31AM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:42AM lilfloppy said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:50AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:14AM JasonA said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:18PM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:35PM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:19PM whylekat said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:33PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:38PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:39PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:11AM maveric101 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:26AM CARmakazie said

Posted: Dec 3rd 2011 3:35PM philmcfail said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:44AM LAZoftheTamarinds said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 5:23AM Brian Griffin said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 9:58AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:13AM eat it said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:28AM Altrix said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 9:13AM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:42AM freaparn said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:02PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:47AM Dubiousity said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 5:40AM Traptz said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 8:59AM eat it said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 9:43AM Traptz said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 9:44AM Traptz said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:01AM A Sandwich said

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW