So, basically with every new Call of Duty game being released, it breaks new sales record, and becomes yet again the biggest gaming entertainment product in the world.

Now naturally, this will have to end someday as it's pretty impossible to keep on rising forever, now the question is, when exactly do you think the Call of Duty franchise will take a dive in terms of sales numbers:

To illustrate:

"

MW > COD 3

MW2 > MW

BO > MW2

MW3 > BO

"

Personally I believe the next Call of Duty game will be the last one to break the records, and with the following to that the sales will be at least 10% lower than the previous game.

What do you think?

Once it hits the Wii U. Oh the irony :)

Most series like these end up in decline because people get bored ... This is not always the fault of the developer, and often it comes from so many publishers trying to cash in on the popularity by releasing similar games.

It is difficult to bet on timing, but I have noticed in the past that it often happens with a generational transition in hardware; and I suspect it is because new hardware brings with it new experiences that push the older "super series" to the background, or the older series simply sees far less releases.

It's not going to be for a while. It's like the Madden of FPS.

For some reason people want to buy the same game with different multiplayer maps every year.

Many people were doubting MW3 will even outsell BO, myself included.

Probably not till next gen, although yet again, I find myself scratching my head about this years COD. But then again - the userbase for HD consoles is growing, COD is mainstream so in theory it should exponentially grow as a franchise too, till they fuck up majorly. I am talking making ALL MP P2P or something along the lines of that.

Different multiplayer maps with loads of game content from previous releases.

I know every game does it in some shape or form, but MW3 really rehashes entire buildings from previous releases :/

I have feeling the series after Black Ops 2. (This years Call of Duty).

This is what Activision does with their series.  Look at Tony Hawk.  That was a great series and now no one cares about it.  Shooting people has more appeal than skateboarding though so expect COD to be big for a while.

There is a difference though ...

Madden literally has no competition; if you want a NFL football game with up-to-date rosters you really only have to buy Madded every year.

CoD has a lot of direct competition from clones made by other publishers, and also sees a lot of competition from other FPS games in general; and, much like how people got bored with WWII FPS games, eventually people will get tired of the Modern Warfare games.

It will be interesting to see what people move towards because, while I would like to see a return of more silly FPS like Duke Nukem and Redneck Rampage, what people migrate to from one generation to the next seems somewhat random.

The thing is though that there was competition for Madden at one time.  NFL Quarterback Club, Joe Montana Football, etc.  It wasn't good competition, but there was some.  Madden just wiped the floor with everything and who knows maybe CoD will eventually too because like you said, most of it's competition is clones and most people choose CoD over the clones because it's more established and in most cases more accessible.

I'm with you on seeing more silly FPS, but I just don't think that it's going to happen.