Activision has announced that its Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has earned the company more than $500 million worldwide in the first 24 hours the game was made available. According to the company, that makes it the biggest entertainment launch of the year.

"With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row," said Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard's CEO. "Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars," the two most successful movie franchises of all time. Given the challenged macro-economic environment, we remain cautious about the balance of 2012 and 2013."

The game was released on November 13, and there's no doubt that it will continue to sell like mad during the holiday season. That's great news for multiplayer fans, who won't have to wait long to find other players eager to take them on.

Halo 4 was released a week earlier, and it sold through more than $220 million in its first 24 hours. Considering it's only available on the Xbox 360, as opposed to Call of Duty's multiplatform approach, that's not too shabby either.