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Sometimes half a billion dollars isn’t enough.

This year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 had sales of more than $500 million worldwide in its first three days on the market, Activision Blizzard (ticker: ATVI) said early on Thursday. The stock fell more than 7%.

“Black Ops 4 is off to a blockbuster start,” Activision executive Rob Kostich said in the news release. “Our digital sales results have been record-breaking across all platforms, and the overall performance strong. We’re really excited about Black Ops 4’s momentum. There’s much more to come, we’re just getting started.”

Total sales, including physical copies and those sold online, were roughly flat year over year compared with 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII. That game had sales of more than $500 million in its first three days, the publisher said at the time.

Investors were likely looking for more sales growth year over year for the company’s key game franchise. UBS said in a report Wednesday that it expected Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 to sell 15% to 20% more units than 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII.

But not all analysts are downbeat. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian wrote on Thursday that more people are playing the new game, in a positive sign for future sales.

“Total player count across online modes still exceeded the combined single-player and online engagement for WWII,” Sebastian wrote. He pointed out that the newest game came on the market in October, allowing for more sales during the fourth quarter than for previous games, which were launched in November.

“Given these encouraging launch weekend statistics, we reiterate our expectations” that Activision will sell 22-23 million units of Call of Duty this year, he said.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter also noted the earlier release.

“I think that investor expectations have gotten unrealistic,” he said. Some people may have been unaware of the early launch, reducing early sales, he said in an email. “So a flat result is great. The market doesn’t seem to appreciate that, and expectations weren’t set properly.”

The game doesn’t seem to be over for Call of Duty sales yet.

Write to Tae Kim at Tae.Kim@barrons.com