Battlefield 3 couldn't do it and neither could Skyrim it seems, Call of Duty, two Call of Duty games actually, remain the most played games on Xbox Live for the week of Nov. 21.

Yes, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim isn't even an online game, but Major Nelson's weekly list counts all games played on connected Xbox 360s. So the game itself doesn't have to be an online game, the player just needs to be logged in.

That in mind, it's pretty impressive that single-player only Skyrim is in the number three spot, bumping Battlefield 3 from its purchase, but not touching Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Call of Duty: Black Ops from their one and two spots, respectively.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's record-breaking, first-day sales are impressive, but almost more impressive is the life these Call of Duty games seem to have online.

This morning I hopped online to see how the past four year's worth of Call of Duty games were doing online. Yes, people still do play the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I did the same thing at the beginning of the year, to see how the games were doing. Let's compare.

Each of these games show the current number of online players when you log in to find a match on the Xbox 360. I happen to only have all of these games on this platform, so I wasn't able to check out the PC or PS3. Here's what I found:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 had 776,152 people logged in shortly before 11 a.m. eastern on Veterans Day, a work day for many. Last year's Treyarch-developed game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, had 196,648 players logged in. The previous Infinity Ward-developed game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 still had 62,541 people playing it. Remember, that's a 2-year-old game and it's a weekday. Call of Duty: World at War, a game set during World War II, still had 5,800 people playing it. Finally, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the game that helped propel the series into the stratosphere, was being played by 3,309 people four years after the game was released. Not bad.

Back in January of this year I had the same idea of looking at how many people were still playing this dated Call of Duty titles. One evening on Jan. 30, I logged into all four Call of Duty games, from the original Modern Warfare to the then most recent Black Ops to see how many were playing. Comparing those numbers from almost a year ago to today's, I'm a little surprised how little they have changed.

Here's a quick run down:

Black Ops: 757,237
Modern Warfare 2: 174,059
World at War: 15,079
Modern Warfare: 15,361

What's it all mean? Well judging by these numbers, it looks like the series has a strong fanbase that like to stick around.

The population of the planet just hit 7 billion people. The total number of hours played online in Call of Duty: Black Ops, released one year ago, just exceeded 2.8 billion, according to Activison.

The population of the planet just hit 7 billion people. The total number of hours played online in Call of Duty: Black Ops, released one year ago, just exceeded 2.8 billion, according to Activison.

Activision is rolling out the beta version of the Call of Duty Elite service on the PlayStation 3, allowing selected Black Ops players try out video sharing, stat tracking, custom groups, and competitive events. Sign up now!

Dismemberment? We know you can handle that. Zombie vomit? I'll admit to some queasiness watching that in action.

Activision's pimping the PC and PS3 release of its Rezurrection map pack, on Sept. 22, with this latest video. It's already out for Xbox 360 of course, and it's at least as believable as Apollo 18.

The fourth and final add-on for Call of Duty: Black Ops, Rezurrection, hits the PS3 and PC September 22, kicking off a double XP weekend. Rezurrection's all-zombie maps include Moon, Nacht der Untoten, Verruckt, Shi No Numa, and Der Riese.

One of the highlights of the Call of Duty XP convention was its paintball field recreation of "Scrapyard," a multiplayer map plucked from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I took a few stinging paintballs to the thigh and bicep for your enjoyment, if you couldn't make it to Los Angeles this past weekend.

Armed with one paintball gun, some light protection and a GoPro Hero helmet camera—provided by the fine folks at GoPro, thank you very much—mounted to my chest, I ran the "Scrapyard" course for one game of real-life Domination that lasted about seven minutes. Five minutes of that session allowed for infinite respawns, with the last two minutes "sudden death" for Team Black and Team Khaki.

As you watch the above video, keep a few things in mind: we totally kicked ass; I was shot at least six times, hence my frequent trips to the red "respawn point"; yes, I really should have mounted that GoPro on my head, not directly behind my gun; people lined up for hours to experience this Call of Duty recreation and for good reason—it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Take a look at the pint-sized "Scrapyard" recreated for Call of Duty XP above and pray that Activision has the good sense to do this again next year—only bigger.

Activision's social network and stat-tracking service for the Call of Duty enthusiast, Call of Duty Elite, may become your preferred way to meet and play against your fellow first-person shooter fans. It does a whole lot more, but let's take a look at what Elite's Connect feature suite is all about.

Connect is where Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players will join Groups, start up Clans and delve into the games' Theater modes. It's where Beachhead Studios head Chacko Sonny believes Elite's most useful, most compelling features may lie. There's more in the "behind the scenes" video, if you're interested in what Elite may bring to Call of Duty.

For more on the premium features of Elite, the kind you may feel like paying for, read our pre-Call of Duty XP preview of what's coming to the paid side of Activision's soon-to-launch service.

Hey, you like guns? Then you should really be at Call of Duty XP this weekend. They got guns! Lots of 'em. They even have a FGM-148 Javelin and an alien head. Just head to "The Armory." Or take a journey with me through the magic of photo galleries!

The various arsenals of many Call of Duty games are represented at the XP expo's Armory, from Call of Duty: World At War to Modern Warfare 3. Men dressed as Vietcong, men dressed as Navy SEALs and men dressed as Makarov thinly populate the Armory, intimidating you with nasty looks and huge rifles. But it's all in good fun.

If you can't make it to Call of Duty XP this weekend and enjoy looking at firearms behind chainlink fences, get an eyeful in the gallery above.