20 million Black Ops players log 600 million multiplayer hours

Call of Duty: Black Ops has hit another whopping milestone, as Activision announce that the cold-war shooter's 20 million-strong player base has logged a staggering 600 million hours online.

Released on November 9, Black Ops has had only eight weeks in which to reach these dazzling figures, meaning that since launch, eager fraggers have averaged ten million hours per day. That's only half an hour each if you assume all twenty million are on every day, but still.

According to MTV Multiplayer, Activision are putting the massive numbers down to an increased sense of online gaming as a social activity or network.

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirschberg noted that "Call of Duty has in many ways become one of the world's most engaged social networks," while ActiBlizzard CEO Bobby Kotick commented that "Call of Duty creates a shared sense of identify for its community and is as integral to their social lives as any other form of digital communication."

By way of comparison, Black Ops' precursor, Modern Warfare 2, announced a 25 million strong player base in March, 2010 - four months after release. Blacks Ops also snatched the Biggest Entertainment Launch from its big brother by totting up 5.6 million units within 24 hours of US and UK launch. Five days in, it reached USD $650 million in sales, again topping Modern Warfare 2's efforts of USD $550 million.

Activision recently announced that Black Ops has managed over USD $1 billion in worldwide sales, and its continuing position at the head of retail and digital distribution charts suggest we can expect more whopping statistics this year.