Destiny: $500 million sold in to retail, first-parties worldwide

Activision said it sold more than $500 million of Destiny into retail stores and first parties worldwide on day one.

The figure encompasses day one stock which makes it "the biggest new video game franchise launch in history," says the firm.

“Based on extraordinary audience demand, retail and first party orders worldwide have exceeded $500 million for Destiny,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “This industry milestone marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world.

"The success of Destiny, along with the recent introduction of Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone, is further validation of our unique capabilities to create great entertainment franchises from the ground up.”

The shipped figure is identical to the amount Activision has spent on the title between development and marketing. The firm said the amount of money tossed at the online shooter proves it has "confidence" in the title.

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg reiterated said confidence in the IP, stating it had faith in Bungie from "the beginning."

"We’ve been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off, but not many people believed we’d be able to say it did so on day one,” he said.

Activision will post its latest financials in October, and we expect the firm to reveal how many copies were sold through to customers.

However, industry analyst Colin Sebastian estimates the $500 million shipped equates to more than $600 million in retail revenues - or around 9 million units sold. Sebastian believes "follow-on sales will occur at higher incremental margins."

Destiny was the most preordered new IP in history, according to early figures from the company, and 11,000 midnight openings around the globe were held for its launch.

It released Tuesday, September 9, on PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.