Europeans and Call of Duty: Is CoD a "thing" in your country?

[A'tuin]

After watching Jim Sterling's video about Call of Duty being on of the most popular games, I'm just simply staggered. Bigger than GTA V? In Finland, even mainstream-ish news reported how GTA V accounted for about 90% of all sold games in it's launch week.

But Call of Duty series? Never seen anyone play it, never heard anyone talk about it in real life (unlike NHL, FIFA, Angry Birds, Clash of Clans and the GTA that have "leaked" into non-gamer area). Well I've read a review about some CoD game, but the review pretty much said: ignore this, the Battlefield series of our nordic neighbours is better in every aspect."

Actually the poster boy for unknown indie gems in Jim's video, Legend of Grimrock is a lot more famous here than Call of Duty, but that's simply because LoG is Finnish, and Finns are ridiculously patriotic when something we made (Max Payne, Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Hay Day) makes it big.

So my question is: Other Europeans, is Call of Duty popular in your country?

2nd question: Americans, is the Call of Duty series actually more famous than stuff I'd consider relevant games (GTA, Assassin's Creed, NHL or maybe NFL there, Counter Strike, Saint's Row, DOTA and LoL, Starcraft 2)?

I'd assume that at least the French would share our opinion about "American gun nuts shoot brown people while chanting USA USA USA!" (Sorry for the exaggeration, my perception of Cod is just a gun fetishist fantasy filled with "Booorn in the USA" and apple pies with bald eagle stuffing")

 

[Alfador_VII]

Yeah in the UK COD is very much a thing. But so is FIFA, and GTA. I'm actually surprised that the big sports games, especially Madden aren't more important in the US, given how much of a merketing push they get every year.

 

[Magix]

Estonia is all about Counter Strike and LoL, nobody really plays CoD

Much smaller pool, but still =P

 

[OneCatch]

UK here, COD is huge. Probably the biggest single franchise, particularly on console.
Individual games like Battlefield, Fifa, Halo, Skyrim, GTA have come close to particular COD games, but in general awareness, popularity, and extent of promotion, COD beats basically everything else into the ground with it's big, crass, Michael-Bay-style exploding stick.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

The fact that general people have heard of the game and its acronym, CoD, is quite remarkable.

In the UK, I'd definitely say it is one of those go-to titles that you could spiel off and potentially capture a lot of people who would have heard of it.

Not necessarily that they'd know anything about it, but having heard of it.

Mind you, big titles are getting increasingly more mainstream coverage in the news now. I don't know why, but it's reported on major news networks now, they followed the GTA release and aftermath complications with multiplayer. It was mindblowing to see it on the general news networks and spoken about by news anchors on major networks.

Crazy. But yes, CoD is definitely becoming one of those stronger namesakes that people have heard of. I wouldn't say it's as big as something like FIFA, but that has an obvious legacy that CoD doesn't have... yet.

 

[Shadowstar38]

I'd assume that at least the French would share our opinion about "American gun nuts shoot brown people while chanting USA USA USA!"

Dude. The most popular characters in that series are British, and they always end up saving America's ass.

OT: COD, GTA, Pokémon, and Mario. That's about the only things you can mention to a non-gamer in the states and have them know what you're talking about. Those last two are know by virtue of existing for so long.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Yeah in the UK COD is very much a thing. But so is FIFA, and GTA. I'm actually surprised that the big sports games, especially Madden aren't more important in the US, given how much of a merketing push they get every year.

Madden is huge in the U.S. It consistently breaks the previous year's sales records. However, Madden, unlike CoD, didn't vault into the stratosphere of financial success in a short window of time, it's grown steadily over the past two decades.

Also, anecdotally-speaking, Madden players aren't as loud or obnoxious as CoD players.

Which is really kind of sad, when you think about it. Gridiron fans are notorious for being boisterous and "in your face," yet in the gaming scene it's the CoD players that are the most notoriously loud and obnoxious.

 

[Jandau]

Croatia here, I don't know anyone who play CoD as anything more than a side dish. Multiplayer here is mostly about WoW, DOTA, CS (old and new), WoW and a sprinkling of other games. In general, PC gaming is dominant.

 

[88chaz88]

I don't want to get you down boys, I'm European myself, but as CoD is the only "core" game that publishers care about, the US is also the only country publishers care about. Your Finnish, Croatian, and even UK "dollars" are basically worth nothing to them.

And UK here, as is already evident, CoD is huge.

 

[Tayh]

I know a few console peasants that subscribe to CoD, but other than that, my usual gaming circle plays other games.
Living in Denmark, btw.
Could be that Battlefield has better marketing here, since I've actually seen billboards advertising that game.

 

[Mojo]

CoD is just as huge in Germany as well.
The only game I know of that has radically different popularity is FIFA and MADDEN, but I guess that kinda makes sense.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Romania here and coming from usually browsing through romanian forums it doesn't seem to me that CoD is a thing at all.

Fifa? Sure..but all of my romanian friends don't care one bit about CoD.

I have played MW2, Black Ops, Black Ops 2 but I usually tended to stop after 2-3 months after prestiging a few times. Since I am a PC gamer I tended to not give a toss about Infinity Ward because they don't care about porting their games properly to the PC (just look at Ghosts..*shudder*).

 

[Raimu]

Finland here. A bunch of my friends play it (they call it cod (the fish) in Finnish. That's hilarious.) but I'm not sure the series generates much longevity here. It's just "hey, the new one arrived" and that plays out 'til uninterest strikes.

To be honest I'm not actually even sure if everybody playing the games thinks of them as Calls of Duty. It's like a Tom Clancy's moniker now.

 

[Maximum Bert]

From UK and yes COD is pretty big but nowhere near as big as it was there was a time (around MW2) when it was massive then after that it has slowly dwindled I used to know loads of people who played it now I only know a couple who play it occasionally but it has entered the consciousness of those who dont play games.

GTA is also huge but rather strangely I heard almost nothing about it when IV and V came out and dont know anyone who handt dropped them almost entirely within a week and only one person who completed IV and V, Vice City was the biggest one I remember for GTA hype wise anyway.

Fifa is massive but that just sells to the same people again and again who play almost nothing else a few of my friends fall into this category they like football ergo they like Fifa their game collection outside Fifa consists of about 4 other titles however I dont know anyone who upgrades every Fifa title.

So yeah COD is a thing here its just nowhere near as big a deal as it used to be at the moment its at its lowest point since before COD4 MW came along. I actually dont know anyone who bought Ghosts.

 

[Evonisia]

Call of Duty is a thing in the UK. If you look at Black Ops' world map and Black Ops II's globe thing you'll always see a heavy concentration of people in the UK, parts of Europe and America.

However, Battlefield is a major thing here as well. I like to call Battlefield the game for people who think they're too cool for CoD. "Hurr durr I hate Call of Duty it's for kids" says my friends who jump onto Battlefield at the age of 13. How cute.

 

[Buckshaft]

Ireland here, Call of Duty was always huge up until about MW3, it's still around and everyone knows of it, it's just that FIFA is more popular, and the really popular ones include Assassin's Creed and NFS. GTA is by far the biggest thing apart from FIFA to have come out in the past few years. MW2 really caused the start of the divide between people who loved it and people who hated it (Though Zombies was huge for a while) Come to think of it, I know more people who bought Kerbal Space Program than have bought Ghosts. Even I only got it because it was Christmas and I had money left over from buying NFS and XCOM. So yeah, people (Especially in the north, where I'm from) Really haven't cared all that much about the series for a few years, though in my own opinion, BO2 was the best since MW1.

 

[lee1287]

COD Is massive in the UK, as is GTA V and FIFA, Hell I have to order NHL from Amazon because GAME and CEX don't seem to stock it around where I live, which is annoying.