...so thats a lot, right?

Thats a ton of people. Add to that the 850,000 or so who play Halo 3 every day and thats over 2 million people on XBL every day on 2 games...crazy.

Makes sense for the PS3, what other game really could beat out COD4 on the system?

Kinda surprised about the number of player on the 360, I wonder what #'s Halo 3 puts up.

@greygecko: a whole FUCKTON!

I still don't get it. How can this be comapred to the playbase on the PC? I mean, theres 52 player server full 24/7. surely XBL and PSN users are a mere fraction of the PC COD4 market, right? Im one of them (original game, proper CDKEY) and I have to say i fond 1.3 millions preety normal, as far as onlien FPSs go. Surely a first on a home console, but quite normal for a PC FPS.

All they need to do now is add cross-platform support and allow Xbox 360 vs PS3 matches!

1.3 million murderers in training.

Does not compute.

@Kanik: They may bocome rich if they lvie in the UK.

[kotaku.com]

Oh, tabloids, wont you ever learn?

1.3 million term papers/sales reports not being written.

All my online friends on the PS3 have this... I can almost believe that the PS3 has more numbers... good to know know COD4 is doing so well though...

It's pretty much Counterstrike 2.0

@Kanik: If games really taught people to kill, would people really risk pissing off what would have to be the greatest fighting force on earth?

@ShadowFFVI: pretty much, and i love every minute of it

Man, that is so interesting. I'm just gonna listen.

i hated single player so much that i didnt even bother playing online. Oh well back to Halo3

Why can't Sony/IW provided accurate figures for PS3...I find it hard to believe that theres no way to pull these numbers?

COD4 > Halo 3.

Makes sense, innovative well put together tactical shooter vs Halo 2 in a newer slightly uglier dress.

@exkon: Last time I played H3 there were about 300,000 people online. Thats probably changed with the map pack being free now.

It's a great game and Infinity Ward deserve all the credit in the world for making such a great game. It's not unbalanced,and plays very smoothly. Traded in my copy of Halo 3 a month ago and this is pretty much what I play on Live.

@invictus2006:
Well it did have a original story and not a rehash of previous games,so I'm not sure why you didn't like it.The ending was good and you didn't see it coming.

Sometimes, just sometimes, i wish i owned infinity ward... sometimes...

@enewtabie: i only liked the part as the sniper & in the plane, it just felt to dull. Oh yes i finnished it in 4 and a half hours to easy....on easy

And add the new maps! I'll be a happy camper then. Wait, I mean not a camper! No. I don't do that. At all. Honest.

CoD4 is the only game I own for 360 for a reason. If I bought anything else, it wouldnt get opened because Cod$'s multiplayer is just so damned good.

I would love to know how the PS3 figures compare. Sales of each version - how many play each version online a day. Would be very intresting, but then when the hell did anyone last release interesting statistics?

I love CoD4 but it is getting somewhat boring and I'm utterly sick to death of the repeated and tiresome corner campers. I love Halo3 as well and I've been getting a lot more of a kick out of that recently.

I don't see why there is a substantially greater amount of people playing this Call of Duty as opposed to past iterations. The only thing differentiating CoD4's online game from it's predecessors is the perks, and to me that doesn't justify the absurd amount of buzz this game constantly receives.

And on the subject of the corner campers.... There must be some people out there on this very blog who do it. Why?? What is the appeal of just sitting in a dark spot waiting for people to walk past? Where is the excitement? Is it because you don't have friends you can move around tactically with or did your parents hit you a lot?

I am not saying this to be a fan boy but on an average day if you look at Halo 3 and COD4 there is usually 250,000-390,000 people on line at any time for Halo 3 (it's lower for both at quite times) and maybe only 120,000-200,000 for COD4. I think COD4 had a lot more Unique users but Halo 3 has a very active group of players all the time.

Again not trying to be a fan boy, even though I don't like COD4 online it's still a great game and the single player is some of the best ever.

A lot of people seem to be throwing the word 'tactical' around in regards to this. Let's face it...it's not terribly tactical.

But a good game, nonetheless.

@cdr:

Free online gaming on PC & PS3 = more people playing...

Has Infinity Ward released any sales numbers on COD4?

@kingmanic: I would attribute COD4's popularity to being easy to get into, not higher innovation or tactical depth. Lower bar of entry and all that. Anyone knows the vast majority of XBL players are neither very smart nor tactical nor have great reflexes. COD4 is a perfect fit. You only need be smart enough to pick up an M16, understand it's "first shot or die," and be able to shoot somebody once. There's a lot more to it from there, but that's a fine starting and ending point for the casual player.

Opposed to Halo 3, where weapons are radically different and need to be understood, shooting first is not a guaranteed victory (and is actually sometimes stupid), and commonly one must track a target for 1/3 to 1/2 of the magazine.

Not to mention Halo 3 has more diverse weapons, vehicles, a lot more to do (in game modes and custom games), saved films, and Forge... but before playing Halo it's good to know how to play Halo. It's a lot more complicated on the basic level.

There are a few reasons why CoD4 online is so damn addictive. Yes, the single player is amazing - but that has nothing to do with it.

1) Tight gameplay - Everything is balanced; whatever weapon you are playing with (except a pistol), you never feel like you're outclassed. Much.

2) No WWII in sight. Nuff said.

2) RPG lite - I think this is the main reason people keep playing. The more you play, the more perks you get, the better rank you get. This is definitely where this game gets my vote. It's fun to play games like Team Fortress 2 or Unreal Tournament III, but when there is something to be gained, it reels you in like nothing else.

There is also the fact that on the XBox, most people seem to have the headsets. This is a good/bad thing. Good because you feel more connected to the community when you play, bad when you get the 5 years screaming into your headset (until you mute them...)

That said, I LOVE playing with fellow Kotakuites. So feel free to add me and play some CoD4!

@kingmanic: Innovative? Tactical? What game are we talking about again?

@slomo788: I like your subtlety and agree wholeheartedly.

@NecronomiconUK:

I don't get the appeal of corner camping either. It is so frustrating to be out there actively hunting people down only to have some tool camp in the same spot for the entire match get a victory for doing nothing.

In Team matches it's easy to counter. In Free-for-All, everybody is out for themselves and won't really make an effort to stop it. I can't count the number of times I've been killed by the same person in the same spot at the beginning, and then again, near the end of the match.

You check the scoreboard and see he has 25 kills and 2 deaths and eveybody else is in the 17-15 range or worse. It's terrible.

@Xiedo:
I think it boils down to being more fun and COD4 is more fun than playing Halo.(At least for me and a few others)
Neither game is tactical by far.

except they're all from pirated versions

@Mr_Pointy: Yeah, but I make it a point to take campers out wherever I see them (usually right after they took me out the last time).

The perks kept me playing, but not for long. Most maps are just snipe-fests. In fact, I don't think I've played a round yet where the majority of players weren't camping in the sniper nests. There's nothing wrong with sniping, but holy hell..

@Xiedo: Wow, great response. I agree 100%

I knew the Halo hype train wouldn't last for long. It seems to me like people were more excited for Halo before it came out than they are now.

Halo 3 multiplayer is fun, but something about Call of Duty 4 just feels better, tighter, and more fun. Variety is nice but as a whole I prefer CoD4, which is impressive when you consider that the game has no vehicles and crazy weapons like H3.

@ShaggE: Nothing like overkill with a specific weapon etc. to muddy a good gaming experience.

For me, thank Jeebus I can turn off ranged explosives (airstrikes and underslung grenade launchers) and grenades in SOCOM Tactical Strike...focus on the automatic weapons-fire, people...the gunplay is the shiznit in that game. None of this dancing through the bullets nonsense.

Wow, I must be playing on a different server because I haven't run into many sniper campers. Like... none at all. Most like to use their assault weapon of choice and give precise shots instead. That being said, I love playing CoD4 online. I like the slightly realistic feel to it, where I *don't* have to unload half my ammo to kill one guy, while at the same time you get the RPGish system where you earn your weapons and special perks ^_^.

@Tons Of Fun:
I agree and I have a feeling some sort of vehicle will come up down the line from IW. It's all of their surveys about DLC.Hopefully..

@exkon: From www.bungie.net:

# Unique Players (Last 24 Hours): 885,355

@enewtabie:
they did have vehicles in its early stages of the game but choose to take them out in order for a faster paced game... well in beta on vacant there was a glitch to where you could get into one of the cars on the outside of the maps and do a driveby.

Gratz Infinity Ward!

@Mr_Pointy:

Thats called strategy...if it keeps happening to you and you don't go after that person to make him quit, he will keep using the tactic because its smart and it works.

Pretty much in real life if you ran around the "map" so to speak you'd be killed in 2 seconds flat too. Your complaint sounds eerily like those people who always used to complain about the smart tactician who would get set up somewhere in a good position witha sniper rifle and go to town.

I snipe. >_>

But only because Im going for the golden weapons.
I can believe it, looking at my friends list at least half of my firneds have played COD4, and at least 20 play it regularly.