Most of Activision Blizzard's Q3 revenue came from microtransactions

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Activision Blizzard in its recent third quarter earnings report said it generated an eye-watering $1.2 billion from “in-game net bookings.” For comparison, the same category generated just $709 million for Activision Blizzard in the year-ago period. That’s an increase of nearly 70 percent.

Per Activision Blizzard’s description, in-game net bookings primarily include earnings generated from downloadable content and microtransactions, and are equal to in-game net revenue. So in other words, the company generated $1.2 billion in DLC and microtransaction fees.

Zooming out a bit, Activision Blizzard reported GAAP net revenue of $1.95 billion with earnings per share of $0.78, compared to the $1.28 billion in revenue and $0.26 earnings per share from the same period in 2019.

Monthly active users (MAUs) were 390 million for the period ending September 30, 2020, we’re told, which consists of 30 million MAUs under the Blizzard brand. Activision had 111 million MAUs and King, the Candy Crush maker that Activision Blizzard acquired years ago for $5.9 billion, had 249 million MAUs in the third quarter.

Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush were the top platforms from the three respective divisions. MAUs were up 3x in Call of Duty compared to last year's title while WoW remained stable. MAUs also increased in Candy Crush but the company didn't elaborate further.

Image credit: aliaksei kruhlenia, Pryimak Anastasiia

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https://www.techspot.com/news/87416-most-activision-blizzard-q3-revenue-came-microtransactions.html

 

[Xallisto]

Surprise surprise.

 

[VitalyT]

Using kids to steal parents' money, is like taking candy from a baby. Damn parasitic games creators, there should be a law against them, for exploiting the youth like this. They are like pedophiles of the gaming world.

 

[R00sT3R]

I don't know what's more depressing, the cynical nature of the business model or the sheer number of morons out there willing to fund it.

 

[Shaitan]

... and THIS is why, except for Starcraft II and (MAYBE, AGAIN) Warcraft III: Reforged, I won't pay anything to Activision unless they quit charging either the games or the MTX.
Oh, wait: Starcraft II is now dead and not yet buried; Warcraft III Reforged still hasn't got ladders and the initial options before the "update", Diablo II will never be remastered and I couldn't possibly care less about:
Call of Duty whatever (I loved black ops, but shooters are meh to me right now)
WoW money pit
Overwatch - I have a key I never ever activated, for all I care it can die in a fire
Diablo Immortal - are you f.ng kidding me?!
Diablo IV - I'll pass, thanks. I'd rather pay CDProjekt Red for a Collector's Edition.
NO MTX-infested games for me.
HOW can you justify MTX in a PAID game?! I can understand a FREE game with MTX - Ok, developers need money to support it. BUT in a PAID game?!
No, thanks.
So NO UBisoft games, NO Activision games, NO EA Games (exceptions like C&C are a rare breed)
So probably I'll pay the Mass Effect series, Alien Isolation, and some of the 200 games I keep in my Steam collection.
Thanks, Sh!tctivision, you killed Diablo with MTX, Starcraft, Warcraft is now a mess, I'll never support you.

 

[Athlonite]

MTX is the biggest reason I stopped buying new games you already charge an arm n a leg for the game don't expect me to also pay more for every little character upgrade or game DLC (especially when that content should have been in the game at release time). The only new game I'm going to buy this year is CP2077 the rest can go suck the blood of some other mug

 

[BadThad]

Microtransactions are BAD! Go back to the old model, you pay for a game and you're done paying.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Microtransactions are just a tool - whether they are bad - it depends how a company uses them - Do the whales need protecting - when their uber creations have been nerfed and they need to spend $1000 to get back to the top - who knows.
I find a lot of folks do not know how to frame things effectively - eg if I play a freemium game and spend nothing or a couple of bucks a month - then if there is a league - I just want use my resources well - I'm not competing against others - I'm competing against myself.
I use to play social badminton - if I was playing against a newbie my frame would be to give nice placements to their forearm - then later start moving the return to encourage foot work . If I was playing a much better player - I didn't care - I only wanted to feel I play some good badminton that evening and we all had some fun.
Eg if play fornite ( I don't ) make try to win with no kills - or PvZ with different sets of plants - at the end of the day you are in control