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Raking In $6.6 Billion, Activision Blizzard Reports Record-Setting 2016
Today Activision Blizzard held its earning calls and reported that the company made $6.6 billion in net revenue during 2016, a record for the company and a 42 percent increase over 2015's revenue of $4.66 billion. Activision-Blizzard credited its success to its diverse catalog of titles, including Call of Duty and Overwatch, as well as the company's growing focus on eSports.
During the call, CEO Bobby Kotick said, “Our record performance in 2016 further strengthened our position as the world's leading standalone interactive entertainment company. For the quarter and the year, we delivered our highest revenues, non-GAAP redefined operating margins and earnings per share, well surpassing our own expectations."
The publisher also noted that the monthly active users were at an all time high, with 447 million players. Users spent over 43 billion hours "consuming Activision Blizzard content."
During the call, Activision Blizzard noted that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare did not meet expectations, and that in 2017 that "traditional combat will take center stage" in the series once again. The publisher also revealed interesting details about its event attendance, noting that the 2016 Call of Duty season had over 120 million views and BlizzCon had over 25,000 attendees as well as 10 million users tuning into the event.
Activision Blizzard noted that the release slate for 2017 is lighter and thus the publisher plans to focus on building engagement with players in Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft as well as Call of Duty. Activision Blizzard also expects Destiny 2's release to drive strong sales and a large community. The publisher projects it will make $6 billion in the forthcoming year.
Our Take
Wow. That, uh, that's a lot of money. Pretty incredible that the publisher is having this strong of a year even when what its strongest franchise, Call of Duty, is having a weaker year performance-wise.
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