Call of Duty: Black Ops is now the best-selling game in U.S. History

By Geoff Duncan March 11, 2011

Market research firm NPD has released its figures covering video game console and game sales for February 2011, and finds that overall U.S. consumers spent 3 percent more on video games during the month than they did a year ago. Overall, Americans put some $1.36 billion into games and consoles during the month, up from 1.33 billion in February of last year. Console sales in general were up a surprising 10 percent, although the amount of month consumers spent on games was down 5 percent compared to last year. However, the real winner was console accessories, which jumped 22 percent over sales figures from last year, owing in large part to the success of Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect motion sensor controller.

This month also recorded a new milestone for Activision and developer Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, as the title is now officially the best selling game of all time in the U.S., with 13.7 million copies sold in America alone.

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Overall, NPD found the top-selling console of the month was the Xbox 360, followed by the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation 3. NPD no longer releases specific sales numbers for consoles or game titles, leaving it to publishers and manufacturers to release those figures if they like. Microsoft says it sold 535,000 Xbox 360 consoles last month—a jump of 27 percent, year-on-year—while Nintendo reports selling 454,000 Wii units during the month. Sony hasn’t released sales figures, but industry reports put February PlayStation 3 sales in the range of 400,000 units.

NPD found the five top-selling games in the U.S. market for the month were Call of Duty: BlackOps, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Just Dance 2, NBA 2k11, and Dead Space 2. Call of Duty: Black Ops has been available since November, and NPD says it’s now the bestselling game in U.S. history, surpassing sales of Wii Play.

NPD found sales of portable systems like the Nintendo DSi and Sony PSP fell 27 percent during the month. Although portable gaming is expected to get a boost when Nintendo launched the 3D-capable Nintendo 3DS in the United States next month, the overall trend for portable gaming seems to be leaning towards smartphone and tablet platforms.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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The best Perk-A-Colas in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

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There's nothing more refreshing than taking a nice big swig of a Perk-A-Cola during an intense Zombies match with your pals in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Besides tasting great (we assume), these colas empower you with buffs that will keep you alive until the later rounds. These bonuses are just as important as the Pack-A-Punch, but come in a wider range of flavors. It is possible to stack them all, but that gets expensive very fast so you need to be thrifty about choosing which ones are most valuable early on. These colas come in eight different types that may or may not be worth your Essence to chug. If you want to know which ones are the best in Black Ops 6, check out our ranking.
Best Perk-A-Colas in Black Ops 6

We're ranking these Perk-A-Colas based on their base bonuses, not any additional effects you can get if you Augment them, from best to worst.
Jugger-Nog
You can never go wrong with the classic Jugger-Nog. Increasing your health by 100 is useful for the entire duration of a Zombies mode, but especially in the early rounds. Going down is at best a major setback and at worst a cascade into defeat. This extra health allows you to get out of a bad situation that would otherwise end your run.
Quick Revive
This Perk has two components, with the less useful one being the ability to revive teammates 50% faster. Ideally, that shouldn't be needed but is nice. However, what makes it rank so high is the 50% shorter delay on health regen. Your health will come back over time in Zombies but at a dreadful pace. Starting to heal faster means less time running and kiting zombies around and more time in the action helping the team.
Speed Cola
The best early guns for Zombies mode have a large magazine, fast reload, or both. Running out of ammo at the wrong time and not being able to get more rounds in the chamber fast enough has ended many a run, but Speed Cola is the solution. It will speed up your reloads and armor plating by 30%. That's not a massive number, but fast enough to make the difference.
Stamin-Up
These zombies aren't the shambling types. They will chase you down like sprinters, and some of the monstrous ones can outpace you even at full tilt. Stamin-Up sounds like it would let you run for longer, but actually just lets you run faster since you have no limit on sprint in Black Ops 6. Positioning is everything in Zombies so being able to get where you need to be faster is never a bad thing, especially if it's a downed teammate bleeding out.
Deadshot Daiquiri
Every zombie has a weak spot, which is most often the head. Deadshot Daiquiri makes a critical hit hurt even more than normal, plus increases your auto-aim on those weak points when you aim down sights (ADS). That second part shouldn't factor much if you've got good aim, which is why this is only a decent Perk-A-Cola.
PhD Flopper
Not being able to hurt yourself is situationally useful, and the ability to cause an explosion by diving is a risky move. Yes, it's cool, but you don't want to be lying prone surrounded by zombies. This is a cool gimmick, but save yourself the Essence and skip it.
Elemental Pop
When Elemental Pop works, it's great. The problem with it is that you can't rely on it. It gives a small chance on every shot you take to add a random ammo mod effect, which is cool but impractical. If you have spare Essence on you, sure, it won't hurt you to have, but it isn't something that will turn the tide for you or your team.
Melee Macchiato
Finally, Melee Macchiato bottoms out the list. It is fine in the early game when the hordes are small and you're better off meleeing enemies since it will smack enemies away with each hit, but quickly drops off in usefulness. When the zombies get too strong and too numerous, you will need a lot more than a strong punch to deal with them and end up forgetting you even have it.