In the case of Activision Blizzard, the return to normal even resembles a hangover with sales down 46% and profits falling 65% compared to the same quarter a year earlier. . In addition to declining sales and less engagement, Activision Blizzard points out that its overhead costs have increased due to a 25% larger workforce than last year, which is indeed not nothing. Remember that the group notably bought the Proletariat studio (to strengthen the World of Warcraft team) and the Swedish artificial intelligence company Peltarion (for King).
But the main culprits are known: the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft franchises are down sharply from the previous year. We already knew it, but Call of Duty: Vanguard brought in significantly less than Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020), which itself did not do as well as the champion Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) . The number of active users of Activision is also down to 94 million instead of 127 million a year earlier. There is no coincidence: you have to go back to 2019, the pre-pandemic year, to review this statistic below the 100 million mark.
Diablo Immortal: already positive effects at Blizzard
At Blizzard, we are of course talking about the release of Diablo Immortal, which partially compensated for the sharp drop in income from the World of Warcraft franchise. Interestingly, half of the players registered on Diablo Immortal are newcomers to the Blizzard ecosystem, knowing that the game available on mobile and PC has just exceeded the 30 million download mark in the wake of its Chinese launch. The release of Diablo Immortal also coincides with the end of the drain of active players from Blizzard, whose community is back at 27 million after hitting its lowest level in recent history at the end of last March (22 million).
As of June 30, 2022, Activision Blizzard King games claim a total of 361 million active users compared to 408 million a year earlier. Once again a good student, King and his Candy Crush did not know the crisis and generated even more money than last year with 240 million active users.