According to market analyst Evan Wilson at Pacific Crest, and citing numbers supplied to him by his retail contacts and sources, Activision and Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops has already surpassed the number of pre-orders enjoyed by Activision’s last mega-hit, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

On the back of these numbers, Wilson expects Black Ops to sell at least 12 million units during the holiday season, failing to exceed the sales of Modern Warfare 2 during the same period.

With the release of every Call of Duty title, Activision has noted that unit sales of each subsequent franchise entry has surpassed that of its predecessor, but Wilson thinks this trend is set to end with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops later this year.

During the 2009 holiday season alone, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold an incredible 16 million units, but Wilson’s sales projection of 12 million copies for Black Ops during the same period in 2010 is far short of that lofty number.

Wilson reasons that “competition, weaker marketing, and the Infinity Ward situation” will all contribute to weaker sales of the Call of Duty franchise when Black Ops launches in November.

Be sure to browse through El33tonline’s extensive previous coverage of Call of Duty: Black Ops for tons of screenshots, a couple impressive videos, and bunches of exciting information.

Source: Gamasutra