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Activision Blizzard Made $1.2 Billion From Microtransactions In Just Three Months

Call of Duty microtransaction sales are four times higher this year compared to last year.

Activision Blizzard has reported new financial numbers for the July-September period, and it was a gigantic quarter for the gaming publisher. One section of the company's business that did particularly well was microtransactions. For the three-month period, Activision Blizzard made $1.2 billion from microtransactions, which are called "in-game net bookings." This is a dramatic 69 percent improvement over the same period last year, when Activision Blizzard made $709 million from in-game net bookings.

Microtransactions are very big business for Activision Blizzard. For the latest reporting period, Activision Blizzard made $1.95 billion in revenue from all of its business combined, so the $1.2 billion figure from microtransactions represents more than half of the company's total revenue.

Activision's Call of Duty franchise was a bright spot for microtransactions. Microtransaction sales from Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone were four times higher than the same period last year. Growth was always expected, with far more players jumping into Call of Duty than usual this year

Additionally, Activision reported that Modern Warfare's first-year sales are the highest in Call of Duty history, and two-thirds of sales came digitally.

Activision Blizzard also owns King, the makers of Candy Crush. Microtransaction revenue from King's games grew year-over-year, but a specific number was not divulged.

You can read the full report here at Activision Blizzard's website.

Source: Gamespot

 

[InDaGulag]

Gamers love their MTX. No matter how much they bitch and whine about it on the internet. Companies and devs know it.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Plus Warzone is massive and free to play, so obviously it's going to contribute to a ton of microtransactions.

I'm guessing if they knew Modern Warfare was going to have this kind of response they would have never tried releasing a new Call of Duty this year.

 

[Kenpachii]

Nothing against microtransactions if done well. And lots of PC games do it well. Love it in heroes also. Free to play game and u can buy skins if you like.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Gamers love their MTX. No matter how much they bitch and whine about it on the internet. Companies and devs know it.

Company now: "We got record MTX this quarter"

Gamers: "MTX sucks. Who knows who buys this. Not me"

Company next time: "We got another record quarter of MTX"

 

[LazyParrot]

Diablo 4 is gonna be amazing.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Digital crack.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

 

[j0hnnix]

Me: Stupid microtransactions, sick and tired of this.
Dev: New Gold Sparkly Glimmer weapon skin limited time
Me:

 

[Codes 208]

And yet these fuckers continue to squeeze every possible income they can get like upgrade costs for next gen

 

[Cert.in.Death]

That’s a lot of Mercy skins...

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Gacha bad! Yearly game cosmetics good! Me shoot things! Fun!

 

[starch0n]

Too many pay ***!

 

[Manstructiclops]

Yet apparently games need to be $70.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Yet apparently games need to be $70.

Multiplayer games don't.

Single player games do.

 

[Bolivar687]

Ace said that as mtx become more important to CoD, we may eventually get to a point where it makes sense to keep coD going for an extra year and to give the other dev team extra time.

MW really hit out of the park on so many levels, going back to the classic map control and situational awareness, abandoning crates for a battle pass, battle Royale, 2v2, 32v32.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

People are so stupid. Pass the Brawndo!

 

[MrFunSocks]

Gamers love their MTX. No matter how much they bitch and whine about it on the internet. Companies and devs know it.

Shows how out of touch with reality this forum is.

The overwhelming majority of people that play and buy videos games have by problem with micro transactions, and in fact they like them.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

I bought an anime truck skin for $15 and it was worth it. You haven't accomplished anything until you've killed someone with this:

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Welcome to your new multiplayer overlords.

Next gen is going to be ****ing awesome.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

I bought an anime truck skin for $15 and it was worth it. You haven't accomplished anything until you've killed someone with this:

Please tell me you’re joking!

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

Please tell me you’re joking!

You want to see the helicopter skin too?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Good job gamers. I thought gamers hated corporate profiteering.

Here's what the difference is.

Walmart. Sells $1.2 billion of merchandise. Profit on sale of goods. Probably about 30%.

Activision. Sells $1.2 billion of microtrans digital downloads. Profit on digital transfers. Probably about 96%. If it excludes console marketplace 30% fees, then probably 66%.

 

[In Your Vase]

Noticed that in Overwatch, the default "open loot box" jumps to Legendary Loot Boxes first just to make SURE you know they exist.

Thanks, Activision. Thanks for all you do.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

Activision is such a scummy company. They aggressively milk their franchises until people are fatigued. Then, they discard them like trash. I almost hate them as much as EA at this point.

 

[Spukc]

Diablo 4 is fucked isnt it?

 

[Jibran#one]

Microtransactions in cod this year are ace , the way they should be, nothing p2w, just skins and extremely expensive 20ish dollars ones at that since there are no loot boxes which is a good thing, there's also a 10 dollar battleapass if you want to grind ur way to a handful of good skins every seasons

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

But people told me games need to be $70 or these publishers are gonna go out of business.

 

[hemo memo]

I’ve never spend money on MTX in my life and i’ll never do. But but but “Support the dev”??!!! I do that by playing the fucking game and that’s enough support and I’m not going to encourage this fucking awful practice. You want my money then make expansions and meaningful enjoyable content. Limited whatever skin or weapon and this awful addiction tactics then fuck right off.

 

[ExKing]

I don't want to hear again ANY justification for a 70$ price tag for Next Gen games. The Industry figured it out long time ago...

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

This is what happens when you discount your games to suck in a user base. How many people buy CoD on sale during the holidays? They take a cut on the disc sales for DLC and MTX. It’s the Walmart strategy.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Noticed that in Overwatch, the default "open loot box" jumps to Legendary Loot Boxes first just to make SURE you know they exist.

Thanks, Activision. Thanks for all you do.

I liked how In old CODs where there would be 2-3 map packs, you'd be tossed into the rotation of all map packs even if you dont own any.

So when they pop up, you either leave and find a standard map lobby or you can download the map pack right there for $10-15.

 

[Aidah]

Todd Howard said it, "people will buy anything", AKA they're dumb AF.

 

[Orpheum]

We all know what's going to happen to Diablo 4...

 

[Elias]

"the prices of games need to increase"

Blathering idiots

 

[Fahdis]

"Gamers"

 

[bender]

We all know what's going to happen to Diablo 4...

 

[Tschumi]

This. It's what gamepass is all about.

 

[Pallas]

Not at all surprising ... MTX aren’t exactly bad if done right, and I completely understand why it’s needed in FTP games.

Just look at Call of Duty Mobile, the motherload of MTX’s but they update regularly and give free stuff away too.

 

[Blood Borne]

Nice. Very good news. Hope they charge even more next gen. Gamers are fuckin idiots.

 

[RJMacready73]

Thats why im putting off purchasing a PS5 until next year, those fuckers are looking me to spend £70 on a next gen game whilst the cunts rake in billions and work their employees to death... they can go fuck themselves

 

[ZywyPL]

No wonder. Paying a dollar or two every now and then vs whole 60-80$ at once doesn't hurt your wallet as much. Spending a few bucks on a skin, item, map, weapon, character, vehicle etc., to your favourite game that you play on a daily basis, vs paying 60-80$ for a work-in-progress, people are just voting with their wallets here, and they are voting correctly if you ask me. MTX, just as everything else are awesome if only done right and priced correctly, there's no reason to blindly hate it "just because". People love the game, they want to personalize their experience, they spend funny amount of cash on it, the game's balance is intact, the company earns billions, everyone is happy, what's there not to like?

 

[Explosive Zombie]

Meanwhile people who want fun, single player, mtx-free campaign experiences are complaining games will be 70 dollars next-gen. Why placate people who can't spend an extra 10 dollars when you can aim for a market that will spend hundreds of dollars on stupid cosmetic bs for one game?

 

[Hitchyhero]

Thats why im putting off purchasing a PS5 until next year, those fuckers are looking me to spend £70 on a next gen game whilst the cunts rake in billions and work their employees to death... they can go fuck themselves

That's why I switched to xbox and gamepass.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

And this is why gaming is on a downhill slide. There are too many mongs who will throw money at digital shite in shite games vs wanting a quality experience.

 

[Bogey]

Not surprising coming from a company that is about to sell a World of Warcraft addon for around $40-80, which requires a 15$ per month subscription, and is filled to the absolute brim with further MTX, blizzard-endorsed gold buying, and mid-double digit price tags for even basic customer service requests.

The only surprising part is that players don't give 'em the finger for that shit.

 

[Kev Kev]

Gross, micro transactions and DLC are almost always terrible, can’t believe people throw money at this kind of bullshit

 

[Miles708]

Dear fellow gamers: I hate you.
All of you.

 

[Sybrix]

As long as its cosmetic only i dont give a shit.

Ive played around 100+ hours of COD Warzone and paid zero $$$$ for it.

If other gamers want to pay for my game, thats ok with me

 

[hariseldon]

This is why modern gaming sucks. Games are designed around getting you to spend on microtransactions.