Call of Duty: Black Ops – 600 million hours played

In just 45 days since the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, gamers managed to log more than 600 millions hours, or the equivalent of more than 68,000 years!

In a press release by publishers Activision, that figure is equated to exceeding the average viewership for the 2010 Major League World Baseball series, the audience for the series finale of Lost, and would make Call of Duty: Black Ops the third largest state in the U.S.

And gamers are continuing to average 87 minutes online every single day, which is larger than the 55 minute daily average of Facebook. That’s in addition to already topping $1 billion is sales.

“The $1 billion milestone is staggering, but it doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.  “The true measure of Black Ops’ success lies in the millions of hours that people are investing in this game and this community. Call of Duty has in many ways become one of the world’s most engaged social networks. We are grateful to and humbled by the ongoing support of the gaming community and we are committed to continuing to give them the greatest gaming experiences that we can.”

Those figures are likely to be boosted by Christmas sales and new players – certainly a lot of low rank players have appeared in the last week, making it a good time to be online and taking advantage! And there is likely to be another boost for both online activity and Activision’s bottom line when the first DLC content pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops is released on February 1st, 2011.