The company ‘significantly exceeds’ its prior outlook for the first quarter, with strong growth for franchises including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
The popularity of Activision Blizzard’s key franchises continued to soar during the first quarter for the company – highlighting further potential for its licensees within the CP space.
Bobby Kotick, ceo of Activision Blizzard, commented that “relentless drive” from the company’s employees had helped to produce strong results across its franchises which were “well ahead of expectations”.
The company’s increased investment in its largest franchises – including Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft – is enabling it to ‘connect and engage’ people in more ways than ever before.
For the quarter ending 31 March 2021, the Activision business segment saw revenue grow 72% year over year, driven by Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone in-game revenues, strong premium sales and Call of Duty Mobile. Segment operating income more than doubled year over year.
Meanwhile, Blizzard segment revenue grew 7% year over year, led by strong growth in the Warcraft franchise, with World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion building on the substantial increase in scale seen since the launch of World of Warcraft Classic in 2019.
Other Blizzard franchises including Overwatch, Hearthstone and Diablo also remained on track for success with upcoming projects.
On top of this, the company’s King segment revenue reached a new record, growing 22% year over year, driven by strong growth for Candy Crush. Crash Bandicoot: On the Run also launched on 25 March and has seen over 30 million downloads to date.
Overall, Activision Blizzard’s new revenues for the quarter ending 31 March, 2021 were $2.28 billion (compared with $1.79 billion for the first quarter of 2020).
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