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[Elder Legend]

Source - https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/11407-Activision-Blizzard-Q1-2023-Earnings-Results

Activision Blizzard Q1 2023 Earnings Results

Activision Blizzard announced their Q1 2023 results this afternoon. Highlights include Blizzard losing about 18 million Monthly Active Users since December, 2022.

Blizzard Monthly Active Users

Rose over the course of 2022, but took a major dive of 18 million MAUs since December.

March 31, 2022 MAUs - 22 Million
June 30, 2022 MAUs - 27 Million
September 30, 2022 MAUs - 31 Million
December 31, 2022 MAUs - 45 Million
March 31, 2023 - 27 Million

World of Warcraft

Following the November release of the Dragonflight expansion for the Modern game, the World of Warcraft team is delivering more content faster than ever before,

Subscriber retention in the West is higher than at the equivalent stage of recent Modern expansions.

Warcraft: Arclight Rumble continues to progress well through regional testing

Overwatch 2

While Overwatch engagement moderated versus the Overwatch 2 launch quarter, hours played were approximately twice the levels seen prior to the release of the free-to-play experience.
Season 3, which launched in February, drove strong retention and consistent player investment versus the prior season.

Diablo

Public testing of Diablo IV in March saw very high engagement and positive feedback, and pre-sales are strong.

Diablo Immortal on mobile and PC also contributed to Blizzard’s first quarter net bookings growth, with the game experiencing stable trends across engagement, retention and player investment.

Microsoft Deal

On April 26, 2023, the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") announced a decision to block the merger, stating that competition concerns arose in relation to cloud gaming and that Microsoft’s remedies addressing any concerns in cloud gaming were not sufficient.

Activision Blizzard considers that the CMA’s decision is disproportionate, irrational and inconsistent with the evidence.

Microsoft has announced its decision to appeal the CMA’s ruling, and Activision Blizzard intends to fully support Microsoft’s efforts on this appeal.

Blizzard

Blizzard segment revenue increased 62% year-over-year in the first quarter, with each of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo contributing to growth.

Segment operating income was broadly stable year-over-year, reflecting higher development and marketing costs, including launch investment ahead of the second quarter release of Diablo IV.

 

[feynoob]

Heard that warzone 2 was not good.
They need to fix that fast.

 

[dotnotbot]

Blizzard Monthly Active Users

Rose over the course of 2022, but took a major dive of 18 million MAUs since December.

March 31, 2022 MAUs - 22 Million
June 30, 2022 MAUs - 27 Million
September 30, 2022 MAUs - 31 Million
December 31, 2022 MAUs - 45 Million
March 31, 2023 - 27 Million

Oof

This is crazy, what happened?

 

[Elder Legend]

Oof

This is crazy, what happened?

The abysmal launch of Overwatch 2 in October that everyone despised and possibly Warzone 2 ?

 

[Doom85]

The abysmal launch of Overwatch 2 in October that everyone despised

Sounds like it’s doing better now though. Given Overwatch is the only online multiplayer game left I’m still enjoying (I feel like I’m about done with Dead by Daylight), I hope it stays around for as long as possible.

 

[gothmog]

Oof

This is crazy, what happened?

Didn't they basically cut China off at the knees with the whole Netease deal?

 

[Elder Legend]

Sounds like it’s doing better now though. Given Overwatch is the only online multiplayer game left I’m still enjoying (I feel like I’m about done with Dead by Daylight), I hope it stays around for as long as possible.

Dragonflight is pretty amazing since the start and now. I quit OW, it's not same for me.