How desperately did action fans want a glimpse of Call of Duty Black Ops 2? The live-action clip promoting the Activision game racked up 39 million views this fall to become YouTube's top-ranked trailer for 2012.

"Surprise" - Official Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Live-Action Trailer, embedded above, whips through snippets of rifles, hatchets, tanks and a jet jockey cameo by Robert Downey Jr. to beat out trailers for The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, Ted and Hunger Games.

YouTube compiled its so-called Leaderboard of its Top 12 trailers by combining regular views with views generated by paid ads. Activision must produce mighty sticky commercials: In all, four Black Ops 2 trailers landed in the top 12, while NBC series Revolution was the only TV show to make it into the list.

YouTube managing director Tara Levy told Wired, "Youtube is a platform where video games can generate the same scale of interest as mainstream movies. Brands from Activision to traditional entertainment studioses are clearly succeeding in this new world."

What was your favorite trailer of 2012? Let us know in the comments section below.