Call Of Duty Game Sales Continue To Grow For Activision Blizzard; Mobile Is No. 1 Platform

Activision Blizzard has released its latest earnings report, shining a light on how the gaming giant is performing amid its pending takeover by Xbox company Microsoft.

For the three-month period ended March 31, Activision Blizzard made $2.38 billion in revenue and recorded a profit of $740 million. For comparison, during the same period last year, Activision Blizzard pulled in $1.76 billion in revenue and $395 million in profit. In short, business is booming. Activision Blizzard also reported having $9.236 billion in cash and equivalents on hand.

Activision Blizzard made most of its money from its mobile game division, King, which brought in $739 million during the quarter. This compares to $580 million from Activision and $443 million from Blizzard. In terms of revenue by platform, mobile was No. 1 for Activision Blizzard during the period, reaching $956 million. PC followed with $666 million and console brought up the rear with $639 million. As for digital versus physical, Activision Blizzard made a whopping 91% of its revenue, or $2.157 billion, from digital channels, with $104. million (or 4%) from retail. The “Other” category brought in $122 million, or 5% of revenue for the period.

Given that mobile is Activision Blizzard’s biggest platform by revenue, it makes sense that the company is bringing every single one of its franchises to mobile. Part of the reason why Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard is to get a foothold in the lucrative mobile game market.

Activision benefitted from strong Call of Duty sales, with premium game sales in the Call of Duty series during Q1 jumping “significantly” compared to the same period last year thanks to the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Additionally, in-game spending on Call of Duty games for console and PC grew “strongly” year-over-year, Activision said. The company went on to reiterate that it will release a “full” Call of Duty game this year, but the title remains officially unannounced.

For Blizzard, the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight expansion’s launch in November 2022 continued to pay dividends. Blizzard said subscriber retention in the West was higher than ever before at this stage after launch for a modern World of Warcraft expansion. The King division saw in-game spending rise by 11%, thanks primarily to the Candy Crush series.

In terms of monthly active users, Activision reported 98 million, Blizzard 27 million, and King 243 million, for a total of 368 million. This compares to 372 million for the same period last year. Only Activision and King saw year-over-year declines for monthly active users; Blizzard reported gains.

Activision Blizzard shareholders were dealt some bad news today, April 26, as the UK government announced it would not allow Microsoft’s purchase of the company to go through. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard plan to appeal. For more, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of what happens next.