Activision Announces Better-Than-Expected Results After Successful World of Warcraft Classic Release

Today Activision announced its financial results hor the third quarter of 2019. Since the publisher goes by calendar years instead of the usual fiscal year, this means the period between July 1 and September 30.

Below you can check out a table summarizing the quarterly results.

The announcement stresses that the results are “better-than-expected,” overtaking the outlook provided in august, but net revenue and earnings per share declined year-on-year.

The press release also included the traditional comment by Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick.

“Our third quarter results exceeded our prior outlook for both revenue and earnings per share.

Recent launches have enabled significant growth in the size of our audiences for our Call of Duty and World of Warcraft franchises. As we introduce mobile and free-to-play games based on our franchises we believe we can increase audience size, engagement and monetization across our wholly owned franchises.

With a strong content pipeline and momentum in mobile, esports and advertising, we are confident we will remain a leader in connecting and engaging the world through epic entertainment.”

Following, we get a list of performance highlights for the company’s main brands.

Interestingly, we learne that the overperformance compared to predictions was driven by in-game purchase in Call if Duty: Black Ops 4, and by World of Warcraft Classic which “drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history, in both the West and East.”

The launches of Call of Duty: Mobile and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are also defined “successful.”

Activision

• In the third quarter of 2019:
  • Activision had 36 million MAUs.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 reach and net bookings from in-game items grew sharply versus Call of Duty: WWII in the third quarter of 2018.
• The October 1, 2019, launch of Call of Duty: Mobile saw over 100 million downloads in its first month, reaching the top of the mobile app download charts in over 150 countries and regions, with a 4.9-star rating in the U.S. iOS store.¹
• On October 25, 2019, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launched and became the top-selling new premium game release of the year. In its first week, sell-through units grew a high-teen percentage versus Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, with strong console growth and PC units on Battle.net reaching new highs.

Blizzard

• In the third quarter of 2019:
  • Blizzard had 33 million MAUs.
  • World of Warcraft Classic drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history, in both the West and East.
  • The Overwatch League™ concluded with a sell-out crowd of over 11,000 fans watching the San Francisco Shock defeat the Vancouver Titans in the Grand Finals at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia in September. Season Two average minute audience grew 18% year-over-year.³
• At BlizzCon on November 1, 2019, Blizzard revealed some of the exciting content in its pipeline:
  • Hearthstone’s Descent of Dragons expansion, set for release in the fourth quarter of 2019, and the new Battlegrounds auto-battler mode, which is already in early access and enters open beta on November 12, 2019,
  • World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Shadowlands, set to launch in 2020,
  • Overwatch 2, the next major installment for the franchise, and
  • Diablo IV, the highly-anticipated sequel to the genre-defining franchise.

King

• In the third quarter of 2019:
  • King had 247 million MAUs.
  • Candy Crush franchise mobile reach grew year-over-year, driven by the addition of Candy Crush Friends Saga™ which launched in October 2018.
  • Candy Crush was once again the top-grossing franchise in the U.S. mobile app stores.
  • Advertising continued to grow profitably, with net bookings almost doubling year-over-year.

If you want to compare, you can check out the results for the previous quarter, which were published in August.