Considering Destiny became the most pre-ordered new video game franchise in history, it should be no surprise to anyone to hear the game has sold incredibly well too. Today, Activision announced it have sold over $500 million of Destiny to retail stores and first parties worldwide, thus making it the “biggest new video game franchise launch in history.”

Over 11,000 midnight openings were held around the world in over 178 countries. “Since the beginning, we've been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off. But not many people believed we'd be able to say it did so on day one," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "Destiny is officially the biggest new franchise launch in our industry's history. It's also the highest-selling day one digital console release in history. We have more confidence than ever that Destiny will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation, and Activision's next billion dollar brand. Most importantly, it's just a great game which we can't stop playing.”

Today’s announcement doesn’t necessarily indicate just how much Activision has actually sold to customers. Instead it’s only an indication of just how popular the game has been at retail. Activision is known for releasing this kind of information prior to having concrete sales numbers, although if all pre-orders turned into actual purchases, then the company certainly has much to be happy about.