Battle of Kursk of Sicily had begun, Adolf Hitler was forced to have troops training in France diverted to meet the Allied threat in the Mediterranean, rather than use them as a strategic reserve for the Eastern Front. Hitler canceled the offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy. Germany's extensive losses of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war. The Germans hoped to weaken the Soviet offensive potential for the summer of 1943 by cutting off the forces that they anticipated would be
Call of Duty: WWII days of release. On December 20, 2017, it was confirmed that the game had generated over $1 billion in revenue, making it the highest-grossing console game of the year in North America. As of January 1, 2018, "Call of Duty: WWII" reached 20.7 million players over all platforms, 12.1 million players on PlayStation 4, 7.8 million players on Xbox One, and 825,000 players on Steam. The PlayStation 4 version sold 168,234 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the best-selling game of the week. Not long after "WWII" was released, a fatal incident occurred in which