Activision Blizzard Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results - Two Mobile Warcraft Titles in Internal Testing

Posted 2021/08/03 at 6:21 PM by Archimtiros

second quarter financial results conference calllast quarterJ. Allen Brack would be stepping down as President of Blizzard Entertainmentdiscrimination lawsuit against the companystatement in the earnings press release

Following serious allegations regarding the company’s employment, compensation and workplace practices, Activision Blizzard is taking swift action to ensure a safe and welcoming work environment for all employees. We have engaged a law firm to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace. We will be adding additional staff to our Compliance and Employee Relations teams, strengthening our capabilities in investigating employee concerns. We are creating safe spaces, moderated by third parties, for employees to speak out and share areas for improvements. We will be evaluating managers and leaders across the company with respect to their compliance with our processes for evaluating claims and imposing appropriate consequences. And we will be adding resources to ensure and enhance our consideration of diverse candidate slates for all open positions. The leadership of the company is committed to creating the most welcoming, comfortable, and safe culture possible.

HighlightsActivision - 127 million monthly active users, down from 150 million in Q1 2021

Call of Duty sustained reach, engagement, and player investment well above levels seen prior to the introduction of free-to-play experiences.

MAUs are consistent versus the year ago quarter, and over three times higher than two years ago. Hours played in the franchise during Q2 were higher than the entirety of 2019.

Conversion from Warzone drove strong premium sales, multiple times higher than the level typically seen in previous years.

Console and PC in-game net bookings were similar to the first quarter, and approximately four times higher than Q2 2019.

Call of Duty Mobile net bookings grew double-digit percentages Y/Y and Q/Q, driven by strong execution of seasonal content and the game's launch in China.

Call of Duty Mobile is on track to exceed $1 billion in consumer spending for the year.

Blizzard Entertainment - 26 million monthly active users, down from 27 million in Q1 2021

World of Warcraft net bookings grew a double-digit percentage Y/Y, driven by the launch of Burning Crusade Classic. Subscriber numbers and hours played were higher following the release.

World of Warcraft remains on track for much stronger engagement this year than is typical outside of a modern
expansion year.

The previous Hearthstone expansion, Forged in the Barrens, delivered expansion-over-expansion net bookings growth for a second consecutive release following its March launch.

With United in Stormwind launching today and Mercenaries planned for the coming months, the financial performance of Hearthstone is expected to strengthen in the second half of the year.

The highly anticipated Diablo II: Resurrected will launch on PC and console on September 23.

Diablo Immortal has recieved excellent gameplay feedback, but been delayed to the first half of 2022 as the the team looks to make the title more engaging for a wider audience.

Blizzard continues to make strong progress on Diablo 4, allocating substantial resources to creating exciting in game content to drive engagement over multiple years.

Overwatch 2 development passed an important internal milestone in recent weeks. After a great response to the recent community update, the team is looking forward to revealing more of the game in the coming months as they approach the later stages of production.

King - 255 million monthly active users, down from 258 million in Q1 2021

King segment revenue reached a new record, growing 15% year-over-year, with segment operating income growing even faster.

Advertising revenues grew Q/Q and doubled Y/Y. King’s ongoing initiatives to enhance its ad platform, work with more demand partners and reach more categories of advertisers drove year-over-year growth in both volume and pricing, with broad-based strength across geographies.

The business saw ongoing year-over-year growth in franchise payers and investment per payer, with Candy Crush once again the highest grossing game franchise in the United States app stores.

King has been accelerating the delivery of seasonal content, reaching a monthly cadence for it's largest title, Candy Crush Saga.

The team is planning a slate of seasonal events and live operations for the second half of the year, including tie-ins with other brands.

Q&Alawsuit by the state of Californiaemployee concernsIDFA changesregulatory concerns in China

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Comments

Comment by Aerisot

"Diablo Immortal has recieved excellent gameplay feedback, but been delayed to the first half of 2022 as the the team looks to make the title more engaging for a wider audience." This....This is bothersome.

Comment by Ztinktoof

Activision - 127 million monthly active users, up from 150 million in Q1 2021

I'm confused

Comment by rpgmancer

Oh yay. World of Warcraft Immortal.

Comment by thewildbear

Shouldn't the MAU all be down from? The Q1 counts listed are higher for all 3 companies than Q2 listings.

Comment by Vindir

apparently 127 million users is up from 150 million users.

Comment by Resarise

"127 million monthly active users, up from 150 million in Q1 2021"

"255 million monthly active users, up from 258 million in Q1 2021"

How does that even make sense ? I admit English is my second language and I may not understand something but how a lower number can be "up" from the higher number ? What am I missing here ?

Comment by zugzugzuug

warcraft mobile how about make the PC game better fix the servers and stuff we dont want mobile outside of what pet battles ?

Comment by Naj4

Candy Crush, Call of Duty Mobile.. What's wrong with you people... :(

Comment by linwail

I am just so tired of Blizzard lately. Its depressing to see what was once my favorite company go down like this.

Comment by Tikkin

You forgot fishing 😂

Comment by Trivelius

Funny how they have to compare the current expansion to "modern" expansions because comparing them to their more successful years would make any intelligent investor run to the hills.

Comment by Itacolomi

Funny how they have to compare the current expansion to "modern" expansions because comparing them to their more successful years would make any intelligent investor run to the hills.

I don't think you got the point lol

Comment by chriscoats89

Money this, money that. Driving Engagement, bookings, "converting to premium"

What happened to making games because you were passionate and wanted to have fun.

Comment by bogo

Boggles the mind that they never came out with a pet battle mobile game, guess they couldn't think of a way to destroy it with monetization

Comment by Wispofisis

I'm hoping one of the wow mobile things is the pet battle game that was talked about forever ago.

Comment by Sorc101

Warcraft Immortal LOL.

How about wait and see how Diablo Immortal is received first ;)

Comment by ScrumpusWumpus

Removed(##RESPBREAK##)272##DELIM##Uchur##DELIM##Trolling Don't you have 3 phones?

Comment by Itacolomi

Removed(##RESPBREAK##)272##DELIM##Uchur##DELIM##Political

Money this, money that. Driving Engagement, bookings, "converting to premium"

What happened to making games because you were passionate and wanted to have fun.

Welcome to Capitalism young padawan.

Comment by Itacolomi

Warcraft Immortal LOL.

How about wait and see how Diablo Immortal is received first ;)

Already being received really well actually.

Comment by vindurza

and this is why they are letting WoW die mobile game = easy money from stupid people

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