Call of Duty has around 90 million monthly players, with half of all Call of Duty engagement on mobile, Activision Blizzard has revealed.
Confirmation comes as Microsoft’s long-running pursuit of Activision Blizzard nears its conclusion. Today, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard officially postponed their merger deadline to allow more time for the $69 billion deal to gain approval from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). A resolution is expected in the coming weeks.
The importance of Call of Duty was at the heart of the Federal Trade Commission’s failed attempt to block the deal, with Sony boss Jim Ryan drafted in to highlight the phenomenal popularity of the shooter series. Call of Duty, it was argued, is the world’s premier shooter, and not even EA with its Battlefield series can compete.
New financial figures released today by Activision Blizzard show why Call of Duty causes so much of a fuss. Activision revenue grew 17% year-over-year for the three months ending June 30, with operating income up a whopping 80% year-over-year. All this was “driven” by growth across the Call of Duty franchise, Activision Blizzard said.
Premium Call of Duty sales (most of these will be for last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) grew “sharply” year-over-year. Second quarter in-game net bookings (DLC and microtransactions) were higher than both the first quarter and the year ago period, with Season 3 being “the highest-grossing Modern Warfare 2 in-game season to date, driven by a strong community response to gameplay enhancements and the new BlackCell battle pass offering”, Activision Blizzard said.
Activision Blizzard overall generated $1.5 billion from DLC and microtransactions during the quarter, up 30% year-on-year. This figure will have been boosted by the massive, early June launch of Diablo 4, which includes an in-game cosmetics shop, but Call of Duty microtransactions will have made up the bulk of the total.
Call of Duty Mobile engagement and net bookings, meanwhile, were described as “stable” year-over-year. Lifetime worldwide consumer spending on Call of Duty Mobile since its October 2019 launch passed $3 billion in the second quarter, Activision said.
Despite the success of Call of Duty, Activision’s own Monthly Active User (MAU) figure for the quarter was down year-on-year by two million to 92 million. Activision MAUs have fallen dramatically following the launch of Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0, which fuelled a 111 million MAU total for the three months to December 31, 2022.
Activision is set to reveal Call of Duty 2023, widely expected to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, soon. Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is currently in testing, with a release expected later this year.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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