Hear That Sound? It Could Be the ‘Call of Duty’ Bubble Popping

Ever since ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare‘ mortar-blasted its way onto shelves in 2007, the franchise has been the unchallenged top gun in the shooter wars. Call of Duty games have obliterated the competition ever since, trotting out annual releases that not only netted unmatched sales, but owned the souls of multiplayer gamers everywhere. Each entry topped the previous one in pimp rolls amassed.

That may soon change. According to analysts, last year’s entry — ‘Modern Warfare 3‘ — is lagging behind 2010′s ‘Black Ops’ in sales so far by a little more than 4 percent. The drop is eyebrow-raising because ‘MW 3′ started off way ahead, shelling ‘Black Ops’ in day one sales, $400 million to $360 million.

The upshot is that although the world still belongs to Call of Duty, that world may be shrinking. People are finding better things to do, like maybe watch ‘Girls’ on HBO. Uh, we meant ‘Game of Thrones.’ Yeah, totally ‘Game of Thrones.’

[Via Gamasutra]