The latest iteration of the first-person shooter games franchise Call of Duty hit shelves earlier this week.

Set 50 years in the future, COD: Advanced Warfare allows gamers to wield a variety of hi-tech new weaponary, including exoskeleton outfits that give soldiers superhuman powers.

The game also features Hollywood star power, with House of Cards star Kevin Spacey playing the role of Jonathan Irons, a private military contractor intent on ruling the world.

While early reviews have so far been mostly positive, the game has much to live up to if it is to repeat the success of previous games in the series.

An online poll of more than 5,000 readers of the Guinness World Records Gamers Edition book from 140 countries across the world voted the Call of Duty series their favourite game earlier this year, beating Super Mario Bros. into second place.

The franchise is recognized by Guinness World Records as being the best-selling first-person shooter (FPS) videogame series, having racked up an incredible 188,900,000 units sold across all formats as of July this year.

The series also holds the record for most BAFTA-nominated videogame series, with 36 nominations across seven titles including the Modern Warfare and Black Ops editions.

In 2011 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 made nearly £500m in sales globally during the first five days of its release alone and went on to be the best selling game so far in the series having sold 29.72 million units across all gaming platforms, earning it the world record for Best-selling shooter videogame.

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Within 16 days of release it beat James Cameron’s 3D movie epic Avatar to become the fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion (£641.6 million), a record since beaten by the Avengers movie in 2012 and then Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V last year which hit the figure in just three days of release.

The Call of Duty games haven't just made a fortune for makers Activision, however.

Damon “Karma” Barlow is the highest-earning Call of Duty player, making a total of $229,628 (£136,842) in his career, according to e-Sports Earnings.

Barlow won the Call of Duty Championship in 2013 as a member of team “Impact” and again in 2014 as a member of team “compLexity”. “Impact” – consisting of “Karma”, Adam “Killa” Sloss, Marcus “MiRx” Carter and team captain Christopher “Parasite” Duarte – became the first winner of the CoD Championship with victory on 7 April 2013 and prize money of $1,000,000 (£651,687).

In 2012, Australia's Okan Kaya broke four Guinness World Records titles simultaneously for Longest videogame marathon, Longest videogame marathon on a Call of Duty game, Longest videogame marathon on a First Person Shooter (FPS) and Longest videogame marathon on a shooter game. Okan's incredible gaming session lasted a mind-boggling 135 hours 15 minutes 10 seconds on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

The series has also spawned some incredible high scores and record-breaking performances submitted by fans to Guinness World Records via our Challengers website.

Canadian sharp-shooter Daniel McNeilly registered a yet-to-beaten time of 18.40 to set a record for fastest time to complete the Stay Sharp level of Modern Warfare 3 Spec Ops last year

Arguably even more impressive is this expert piece of play by brothers and regular record-breakers Tristen Geren and Taylor Geren (both USA), who clubbed together to capture the flag in CoD: Black Ops II, while blindfolded, in just 38.40 seconds in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, on 16 September 2013.

The Geren brother’s record is one of many Call of Duty records that appear in in Guinness World Records 2015 Gamer’s Edition which is out now. To find out where to buy it in your country, head to www.guinnessworldrecords.com/gamers

If you think you can do better than any of the COD gameplay records featured above, why not post your score on our Challengers website?

Check out the full list of the 50 games voted the most popular in our GWR Gamer's Edition online readers poll.

1. Call of Duty
2. Super Mario Bros.
3. Minecraft
4. Grand Theft Auto
5. Halo
6. The Legend of Zelda
7. FIFA
8. Assassin's Creed
9. Battlefield
10. The Elder Scrolls
11. Pokémon
12. Angry Birds
13. Final Fantasy
14. Need for Speed
15. Mario Kart
16. League of Legends
17. Borderlands
18. Metal Gear
19. Sonic the Hedgehog
20. Counter-Strike
21. Kingdom Hearts
22. The Last of Us
23. World of Warcraft
24. The Witcher
25. Pro Evolution Soccer
26. God of War
27. Far Cry
28. Bioshock
29. Resident Evil
30. Uncharted
31. Fallout
32. Batman: Arkham
33. DotA
34. Gears of War
35. Mass Effect
36. Half-Life
37. Pac-Man
38. Portal
39. Super Smash Bros.
40. Saints Row
41. WWE
42. LittleBigPlanet
43. Crash Bandicoot
44. LEGO
45. Mortal Kombat
46. Red Dead Redemption
47. World of Tanks
48. Gran Turismo
49. NBA 2K
50. Just Dance

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