Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter of 2015 in their financial release.
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, was understandably elated at the news, announcing “I want to thank our extraordinarily talented employees around the world. They pour their passions into creating the most fun and epic entertainment experiences for our audiences, and our superior financial performance is a result of their dedication.”
Among the highlights of the company’s very positive financials for the first two quarters:
- Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm, and Activision Publishing’s Destiny combined now have more than 70 million registered players and over $1.25 billion in revenues life-to-date.
- Activision Publishing had its strongest ever second quarter engagement and digital monetization, with the most Q2 monthly active users in its history, up more than 25% year-over-year, and the largest Q2 and first half digital revenues in its history.
- Activision Publishing continues to have 2 of the top 5 videogame franchises in North America and Europe year-to-date, with Skylanders, including toys and accessories, achieving the No. 1 spot. Including toys and accessories, Skylanders was the No. 1 console title and kids console title year to date, and outsold the No. 1 action figure line in North America and Europe. Activision Publishing also continues to have 3 of the top 5 next-generation games life-to-date.
- Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty franchise Q2 revenues increased by a double-digit percentage year-over-year due to strong continued sell-through of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and growing online revenues per user across the franchise. Season pass, downloadable content, and micro-transaction offerings have helped drive increased engagement and monetization. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare remains the No. 1 next generation game life to date, as it has been since its launch nine months ago.
- Activision Publishing and Bungie released Destiny’s highly acclaimed second expansion, House of Wolves, with big success. Destiny now has over 2 billion hours of gameplay since launch, which amounts to an average 100 hours of gameplay for each of Destiny’s over 20 million registered players.
- Blizzard Entertainment had the largest online player community in its history, with Q2 users up 50% year-over-year. Though World of Warcraft ended the quarter at 5.6 million subscribers, Blizzard revenues are up year-over-year based on strong performance across the expanding Blizzard portfolio. On June 23, 2015, Blizzard Entertainment released Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft. This new content helped stabilize the subscriber number towards the end of the quarter. World of Warcraft remains the No. 1 subscription‐based MMORPG in the world.
