Modern Warfare 2 achieves Guinness World Record

Guinness World Records have stated that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is officially the most successful entertainment launch of all time, with first day sales of more than $401.6 million (£242.4m).

Launched on November 10, the Activision-published first person shooter broke the $310 million (£159m) record previously held by Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto IV.

The third most successful launch was Microsoft's Halo 3, which generated revenues of $170 million (£84m) in its first 24 hours.

The record takes into account box office film receipts, book and music sales and yet the top three launches are all videogames - in large part due to the higher retail costs involved.

Unlike the limited audience of mature-rated films, both the top-selling videogames have an 18+ age rating, while Halo 3 is rated 15+. Although many family-friendly Nintendo games have sold in similar or greater numbers overall, their sales have always tended to be less front-loaded than more core titles.

"Videogame releases such as the Call of Duty series have outperformed the launches of major Hollywood blockbusters for several years and the day-one sales for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 proved once again that video games have become cultural events in their own right," said Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition editor Gaz Deaves.

"The fan movement and hype surrounding this game in the run-up to launch was almost unprecedented in scale; we acknowledged early on that the big question wasn't if it would break all-time entertainment records, but rather by how much."