The Activision Blizzard earnings call was this afternoon. We've highlighted some of the written results below.
- In the fourth quarter, Activision had 128 million MAUs, up from 111M in Q3 and 125M in Q2.
- Activision Blizzard had roughly 400 MAUs in 2020.
- Blizzard had 29 million MAUs in the fourth quarter, down from 30 million in Q3, and 32 million in Q1/Q2.
- World of Warcraft MAUs grew year-over-year for the sixth consecutive quarter.
- World of Warcraft saw strong engagement across both the Classic and modern game modes throughout 2020
- World of Warcraft full year franchise net bookings grew 40% year-over-year, reaching the highest level in nearly a decade.
- Fourth quarter net bookings for World of Warcraft grew sharply year-over-year, driven by strong sales of the Shadowlands expansion, subscriber growth, and high participation in value added services
- World of Warcraft player and engagement trends since the Shadowlands release are stronger than levels typically seen at this point after an expansion launch.
- The team intends to deliver more frequent premium World of Warcraft content.
- Multiple initiatives underway to experience WoW on a more consistent basis and on more platforms than ever before.
- On mobile, the first stage of regional testing for Diablo Immortal in December and January was met with very positive feedback and strong engagement metrics.
- Multiple Warcraft teams working on new content initiatives across platforms.
- More players will get to experience Diablo Immortal in further rounds of testing ahead of the launch planned for later this year
- 2022 will be a great year for Blizzard. Expect another step change in financial performance as they execute their pipeline.
- Blizzard Q4 revenue was down a bit year over year, as growth for WoW was offset by a decline for other titles and the absence of BlizzCon.
- Blizzard 2020 revenue was up 11% year over year, operating income up 49%, 9pp increase in margin.
- Social games and WoW kept much stronger engagement even after lockdowns ended.
- WoW momentum is unusually high for a non-expansion year.
- A few things up their sleeve with remastered content that will be unveiled in due course.
- Blizzard plans to hire more developers going forward. They'll bring talent from one game to another internally.
- Blizzard wants to bring games to players across the world across different platforms and genres.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/97 ... estor-Call
