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Best-Selling Call of Duty Game (Online Focus): By the Numbers

Activision doesn't release per-mode sales, but by total units sold (which correlates with online population peak), the leaders are:

Game	Year	Lifetime Sales (Est.)	Online Peak / Legacy
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)	2019	>30M	Cross-play, Warzone integration, 2+ years seasonal support.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III	2015	>43M	Zombies peak, specialists, 3+ years active.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II	2012	>29M	Pick 10, League Play, Zombies (Origins), backward compat surge.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)	2009	>25M	Cultural phenomenon; still played on 360/PC (IW4x/Plutonium).
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)	2022	>25M (fastest $1B)	Warzone 2.0 launch, cross-play, seasonal.

By "Online" Metrics

Peak Concurrent (Steam/Xbox/PSN): Warzone (2020) hit 3M+ concurrent; MW2019 / MWII multiplayer peaks 1–2M.
Longest Active Population: Black Ops II (Plutonium), MW2 2009 (IW4x/AlterIW), Black Ops III (Steam/Console) still have thousands daily.
Most Played on Current Gen: Modern Warfare III (2023) / Warzone (shared client).

Answer depends on metric: Total sales → Black Ops III. Peak concurrent → Warzone. Longevity → BO2 / MW2 2009. Current active → MWIII / Warzone.

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