Retail sources in North America are confirming that they, too, are experiencing a much higher than expected pre-order rate for the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops. This matches what Game Stop was already reporting.

Game Stop has declared that the number of pre-orders for Call of Duty: Black Ops is running ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and it is expected to outsell Modern Warfare 2 at release, if the trend continues. Retailers that we have spoken with are also saying that they seeing the same thing.

One retailer told us, “It is actually quite surprising, as the numbers for the Treyarch Call of Duty games have never been as strong, in my experience; but we will go with the trend and order additional inventory to have on hand for those that didn’t take the time to pre-order.” Modern Warfare 2 has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and Black Ops is on pace to outperform it.

The wild card in all of this might be none other than the new Medal of Honor title from Electronic Arts. The analysts we have spoken with suggest that a strong showing by this title could have either a negative or positive impact on the sales of Black Ops. While the pre-orders for the new Medal of Honor title are breaking the record for the franchise, it is unknown if players will just play Medal of Honor to tide them over till Black Ops arrives or if they will stop playing it and move right to Black Ops.

Being released almost a month ahead of Black Ops could end up being an advantage or disadvantage, and we will not know till Black Ops arrives starting on November 9th.