According to new data from Raptr that measures playtime across its 10 million member gamer network, the Call of Duty franchise still dominates the first-person shooter market, despite EA’s major effort to challenge that position with the Battlefield franchise.  Based on automatically tracked gameplay data, Raptr users logged an average of 40% more playtime in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360 than Battlefield 3 on the respective games’ launch days, despite unprecedented gamer enthusiasm and a significant marketing push for the launch of Battlefield 3.

Key findings from Raptr automated playtime tracking paint an interesting picture of the two big shooter franchises of this Christmas season. Xbox 360 players logged 40% more launch-day playtime in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, averaging 6.19 hours compared to 4.45 hours of Battlefield 3. During each game’s first week of launch, Xbox 360 players logged 17% more per-user playtime in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, averaging 20.45 hours compared to 17.37 hours of Battlefield 3. Modern Warfare 3 accumulated more total hours played in one week post-launch than Battlefield 3has in three weeks post-launch

Over half (53%) of Battlefield 3 players on Xbox 360 are also playing Modern Warfare 3, compared to just 31% of Modern Warfare 3 players who also played Battlefield 3. During the first week of launch, Modern Warfare 3 stole more playtime from Battlefield 3 than any other game. And gamers are sticking with older games in the Call of Duty franchise. For the first time ever for any franchise, three Call of Duty games were in the top 10 playtime charts on Raptr (Modern Warfare 2 and 3 and Black Ops).

Raptr’s opinion data found that 81% of respondents were more excited for the launch of Battlefield 3. The vast majority of respondents (92%) consider DICE a more innovative developer than Infinity Ward. Over half of respondents (58%) said the Battlefield franchise has had a bigger impact on the FPS genre. The majority of respondents (80%) feel the Call of Duty franchise generates more hype through its marketing.

“The battle for dominance for the first-person shooter market in 2011 is clearly in Activision’s favor,” said Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr. “EA made a valiant effort evangelizing its fan base and generating massive support around the launch of Battlefield 3. Given how well received the game was, EA has a powerful opportunity to take things further next year, though it’s clear at this point that Call of Duty is a phenomenon that is unrivalled.”

Raptr tracks actual gameplay data from its user base of more than 10 million gamers. This data was compared with survey results from more than 6,000 respondents in Raptr’s “Battlefield vs. Call of Duty Showdown” promotion, in which gamers voiced their preferences between the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 17 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Playboy Magazine, NVISION Magazine, GamePro Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Maxim.com, AOL GameDaily.com, GeForce.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.