ActiBlizz Q3 FY15: digital is king, WoW subs decline slightly, Call of Duty revenue up
Along with announcing its acquisition of King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 billion, Activision-Blizzard has also announced its latest financial results today.
According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, the acquisition of King will add one of the "world’s most successful mobile game companies" to the fold and the firm is happy to welcome the mobile game maker's "over 1,600 incredibly talented employees" to the family.
King's Candy Crush and Candy Crush Saga are two of the top five highest-grossing mobile games in the US with around 330 million unique mobile monthly users.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare remains the number one game on current-gen consoles, according to the company, and Advanced Warfare sell-in is up significantly year-over-year versus Call of Duty: Ghosts.
Thanks to Black Ops 3 dropping later this week, Black Ops 2 monthly active users are up to 12 million which the firm said was "impressive" for a game released three years ago.
Blizzard reported its highest quarterly revenues, driven by Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament for which engagement is up 77%.
Diablo 3 passed the 2 million unit milestone in China, and World of Warcraft subs came in at 5.5 million, down slightly compared to the prior quarter.
The firm will no longer release subscription numbers for the MMO, preferring to focus on "other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance" instead.
Activision also announced since release on October 20, Guitar Hero Live players spend on average two hours per day playing. The game's sell-through is tracking above each of the prior two Guitar Hero releases.
Digital was the big earner for Activision during the quarter with record net revenues of $629 million for the sector. The figure is up 38% year-over-year with digital once again making up 67% to the firm's total revenue.
Digital monthly active users (MAU) during the quarter were up 17% year-over-year.
For the third quarter ended September 30, net revenues were $990 million, compared to $753 million year-over-year.
Have some slides.
