It’s just one week of sales, and it’s not even from the United States, but it may shed some light on the much-maligned secondary Call of Duty developer’s attempt to clear their name. Call of Duty: World at War, the sequel to last year’s smash, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, outsold its predecessor two to one in its first week at retail...in the United Kingdom.

Gamesindustry.biz has the first-week figures from across the pond for Treyarch’s latest, showing that World at War has blitzed to the top of the UK’s sales charts on all platforms, besting even World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

Now consider that both World at War and Wrath of the Lich King come from Activision Blizzard, and you can see the market power of the publisher: 25% of sales from Nov. 8 through Nov. 15 in the UK came from Activision Blizzard games.

Could World at War, made by a studio that was previously considered the redheaded stepchild of Call of Duty developers, actually best the watershed Modern Warfare at retail? Obviously, it’s much too soon to tell, but it looks like Treyarch is well on its way to shedding the nasty reputation brought about by Call of Duty 3.