With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 releasing worldwide today, Gamespot reports that an analyst from Lazard Capital Markets has estimated the total number of pre-orders for this latest installment in the franchise to total more than 9 million units. If correct, that would mean the game has surpassed the number of pre-orders for its predecessor Call of Duty: Black Ops by approximately 55%. The analyst also predicted the game will go on to sell more than 20 million before the end of the year, whereas Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops have managed to sell 22 and 25 million units respectively in the total time they have been on the market.

By comparison, Battlefield 3 was pre-ordered approximately 3 million times, and reached a total number of 5 million units sold before the end of its first week on retail shelves.