• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Activision made a record $5.1 billion from microtransactions in 2021

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
Activision-Blizzard made more money from microtransactions in 2021 than it ever has before.


84421_11_activision-made-record-5-1-billion-in-microtransactions-2021_full.png



The company generated a staggering $5.1 billion from in-game purchases across its live service titles, which includes DLC, World of Warcraft subscriptions, and of course lootboxes and cosmetics. These purchases made up 61% of Activision-Blizzard's total $8.354 billion net bookings.


84421_10_activision-made-record-5-1-billion-in-microtransactions-2021_full.png



The record was achieved even as sales from Call of Duty Vanguard dropped. Despite the sales miss, the Activision segment delivered its second-best revenues of all time


 

Kokoloko85

Member
Good for the fans in the long run. More money normally means the studios they like can make more games they like And sequels etc.

Apart from if its Rockstar, Gamefreak with Pokemon or EA with Fifa. No matter how much money they make they wont improve shit.

Well Rockstar did a good job with RDR2 but lets see how much, better and innovative they get with GTA6 but overall because of the success of GTA5 online they havent bothered to make another one in 10 years
 
MTX also means that profits are really high. IIRC, Activision had higher profits than the entirety of Playstation (and likely Xbox) in the past 12 months. Wild.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.
 
Last edited:

Stuart360

Member
I read somewhere that Warzone makes like 140mil a month from MTX. I thought it was an exaggeration but i guess not lol.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.

It's okay to make yourself #1, there's a difference between being #1 and being #1 with 60% share and your closest competitor has 5%.
 
Let's just wait for the anti-GaaS gang to get in the thread
You don't have to be Nostradamus to predict people won't celebrate GaaS and companies making billions off of nonsense items that normally would be included with a game or encourage pay-to-win.

You're the guy who is first to comment on an article about a politician caught stealing campaign funds and saying, "Just watch. Some posters here will have a problem with this".

Next, let's celebrate Roblox and the billions they make off of manipulating children into bullying each other when they are wearing the free or old cosmetic items.
 
Last edited:

M16

Member
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.
of course not. in the grand gaming market, they still have low marketshare. anticompetitive behavior is using market dominance to hurt competitors. this doesnt even come close to anything like that. plus even if microsoft had high marketshare in the total gaming market, it still wouldnt be a problem because they actually release their products on most of the biggest platforms(console, pc, cloud, mobile).
 
Last edited:
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.

Don't be so sure. Microsoft might make larger investments into game pass and other things, and could give developers additional time to make projects. Then again, this year and next year will have new COD releases + warzone 2. So, yea, the possibility is there to surpass Sony, yes.
 
of course not. in the grand gaming market, they still have low marketshare. anticompetitive behavior is using market dominance to hurt competitors. this doesnt even come close to anything like that. plus even if microsoft had high marketshare in the total gaming market, it still wouldnt be a problem because they actually release their products on most of the biggest platforms(console, pc, cloud, mobile).

And if even they were #1 the competitors would still be at record levels of business and market health anyhow.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.

Nope.

MTX also means that profits are really high. IIRC, Activision had higher profits than the entirety of Playstation (and likely Xbox) in the past 12 months. Wild.

It's insane.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
With all that GTA online money it would be nice to have 60fps next gen update for RDR2.

Totally agree. At least a 60fps patch would be good. Like so many games have done had a free patche. From Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro to God of War 2018, Horizon, TLOU2 and Xbox Studio games.
I dont mind paying £10 for a true next gen update
 

brian0057

Banned
Don't worry, guys.
As soon as they, along with the rest of the industry, start charging $70 for their games, I'm sure they'll willingly close that money fountain.
Or so I've been told.
 
I would definitely be interested in platform breakdowns on this revenue.
Seeing thats there’s 134 million PlayStation’s compared to (estimated, MS hides this info)63 million Xboxes. More than double.

Using legitimate Fornite data. PlayStation was the highest source of income from player spending in Fortnite at 47% compared to 27.5% for xbox of all total revenue from March 2018 through July 2020. Looking around 2:1 sales ratios are reported every where for other games.

We can say 50% of the revenue is from Playstation. As is standard. If we were to assume that, Playstation’s cut was 1 Billion for mtx.

So Sony would lose 1 Billion a year of mtx from Activision if Xbox can would remove their games. Microsoft would lose 2.5 billion in mtx too. But I guess MS can afford to lose that more than Sony can. And even more billions counting the actual sales.

Which is why its very funny Microsoft says they would third place. Yes, if they keep every Activision game on Playstation platforms.
 
You don't have to be Nostradamus to predict people won't celebrate GaaS and companies making billions off of nonsense items that normally would be included with a game or encourage pay-to-win.
My favorite game is GaaS. We get a large update every 3 to 4 months, which is the reason why I've been regularly playing this game for almost ten years now. The MTX are 99% cosmetic. If you spend around 50 dollars on essential stuff like stash tabs, you're basically set for life. There is no p2w. There are no battle passes or anything.

I know this is rather an exception, but GaaS can totally be a great thing.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
That‘s what happens when more and more of the common mob discover games for themselves… The future is GaaS.

Will be dope though to search for the old school games that slip through the cracks here and there in the future.
 

yurinka

Member
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.
No, MS+ABK combined revenue continues being smaller than Sony's one (even if not counting Bungie) but will be closer. In the case they decide to stop releasing future ABK games on PS then they won't be that close and the distance will be bigger.

MS will continue being the 3rd both in the gaming market and in consoles, and not even that in PC or mobile. Nobody will stop them if they want to acquire other big publisher since they aren't a market leader and have a very small market share.

It's okay to make yourself #1, there's a difference between being #1 and being #1 with 60% share and your closest competitor has 5%.
In the case of MS, after this acquisition they won't be #1 and won't even have 15% of the market share.
 
Last edited:

Yoboman

Member
MTX also means that profits are really high. IIRC, Activision had higher profits than the entirety of Playstation (and likely Xbox) in the past 12 months. Wild.
If true its no surprise. Both MS and Sony are selling consoles at a loss. Maybe only slightly turning a profit lately

MS dont release profit numbers either so not sure how you could work that out
 
Last edited:

Ozriel

M$FT
Once this deal pass, it will be harder for Microsoft to justify another mega publisher purchase in the future.
100% pretty much guarantee the total revenue of Microsoft + activision is going to surpass Sony.

You’d think there’s a divine edict against them surpassing Sony in revenue with the way some of you go on.

But yeah, there aren’t that many mega publishers out there, and I’m not sure they’d be keen on picking up more. We’ll Probably see them going back to single studio purchases
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
This is the main reason Microsoft paid so much for Activision. The money they make on MTX in console games is staggering, then on top of that you have the money they make via mobile gaming with Candy Crush (or any King game) and COD mobile.
 
Good for the fans in the long run. More money normally means the studios they like can make more games they like And sequels etc.

Apart from if its Rockstar, Gamefreak with Pokemon or EA with Fifa. No matter how much money they make they wont improve shit.

Well Rockstar did a good job with RDR2 but lets see how much, better and innovative they get with GTA6 but overall because of the success of GTA5 online they havent bothered to make another one in 10 years
Is it?

Last time I checked Activision are making less and less games and just extracting more cash form users of there current franchise's.

Same with Rockstar although at least Rockstar funnel more cash into making the games the release more ambitious.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
My favorite game is GaaS. We get a large update every 3 to 4 months, which is the reason why I've been regularly playing this game for almost ten years now. The MTX are 99% cosmetic. If you spend around 50 dollars on essential stuff like stash tabs, you're basically set for life. There is no p2w. There are no battle passes or anything.

I know this is rather an exception, but GaaS can totally be a great thing.
Path of Exile is a bit rare though to be fair. They actually do this right which is one reason they are so successful.
 

skit_data

Member
MTX also means that profits are really high. IIRC, Activision had higher profits than the entirety of Playstation (and likely Xbox) in the past 12 months. Wild.
Console launch, profits are probably way lower than average for both MS and Playstation atm.
 

kingfey

Banned
Seeing thats there’s 134 million PlayStation’s compared to (estimated, MS hides this info)63 million Xboxes. More than double.

Using legitimate Fornite data. PlayStation was the highest source of income from player spending in Fortnite at 47% compared to 27.5% for xbox of all total revenue from March 2018 through July 2020. Looking around 2:1 sales ratios are reported every where for other games.

We can say 50% of the revenue is from Playstation. As is standard. If we were to assume that, Playstation’s cut was 1 Billion for mtx.

So Sony would lose 1 Billion a year of mtx from Activision if Xbox can would remove their games. Microsoft would lose 2.5 billion in mtx too. But I guess MS can afford to lose that more than Sony can. And even more billions counting the actual sales.

Which is why its very funny Microsoft says they would third place. Yes, if they keep every Activision game on Playstation platforms.
You will need to account for the new gen revenue from now on, instead of the old gen.

MS is looking at that picture, since last gen is done, and have 1-2 year legs.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
of course not. in the grand gaming market, they still have low marketshare. anticompetitive behavior is using market dominance to hurt competitors. this doesnt even come close to anything like that. plus even if microsoft had high marketshare in the total gaming market, it still wouldnt be a problem because they actually release their products on most of the biggest platforms(console, pc, cloud, mobile).
I highly doubt that will be the reason they allow for monopoly, total bs.

And Sony starts to release their products on the other platform you mentioned as well, so that reason is moot.
 
Last edited:
  • Triggered
Reactions: M16

DaGwaphics

Member
Seeing thats there’s 134 million PlayStation’s compared to (estimated, MS hides this info)63 million Xboxes. More than double.

Using legitimate Fornite data. PlayStation was the highest source of income from player spending in Fortnite at 47% compared to 27.5% for xbox of all total revenue from March 2018 through July 2020. Looking around 2:1 sales ratios are reported every where for other games.

We can say 50% of the revenue is from Playstation. As is standard. If we were to assume that, Playstation’s cut was 1 Billion for mtx.

So Sony would lose 1 Billion a year of mtx from Activision if Xbox can would remove their games. Microsoft would lose 2.5 billion in mtx too. But I guess MS can afford to lose that more than Sony can. And even more billions counting the actual sales.

Which is why its very funny Microsoft says they would third place. Yes, if they keep every Activision game on Playstation platforms.

This is all Activision's MTX revenue, it's not console specific. King and Blizzard are doing their thing here and have nothing to do with PS. Plus, total sales aren't 2:1 in CoD, so just like with Fortnite, I would expect Xbox to lift beyond its weight in actual $$ earned (there's a reason why Sony chose to base their crossplay compensation on when they underperform rather than overperform).
 

onesvenus

Member
I highly doubt that will be the reason they allow for monopoly, total bs.

And Sony starts to release their products on the other platform you mentioned as well, so that reason is moot.
Microsoft is so far away of being a monopoly on the gaming space that it's crazy you keep bringing that up
 

M16

Member
I highly doubt that will be the reason they allow for monopoly, total bs.

And Sony starts to release their products on the other platform you mentioned as well, so that reason is moot.
you dont know what a monopoly is
 
Top Bottom