Activision Blizzard earnings fall short of expectations
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Activision Blizzard‘s net bookings of $2.49 billion in the fourth quarter ended December 31 fell short of expectations on Wall Street, with the net bookings down 18% compared to $3.05 billion a year ago.
That means that Call of Duty: Vanguard did not, as analysts suspected, perform as well as last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops — Cold War. The company noted it had “lower than expected performance” in its Activision division, which produces Call of Duty. It was offset by record performance at King, as mobile net bookings grew 18% from a year ago and represented 33% of net bookings in the quarter.
Analysts had noted earlier that gamers weren’t enthusiastic about the return to World War II with Call of Duty: Vanguard, and so they expected it to sell fewer copies than both Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2019. Activision Blizzard acknowledged the title had lower engagement, though player investment in the title remained well above the level prior to the March 2020 launch of Call of Duty: Warzone.
On a GAAP basis, revenues were $2.163 billion for the fourth quarter, down from $2.413 billion a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $1.01 a share, compared to 76 cents a share a year earlier. The revenues were still above the company’s own outlook of 62 cents a share on revenue of $2.02 billion.
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In after-hours trading, Activision Blizzard’s stock is flat at the moment at $78.96 a share.
Analysts expected earnings of $1.31 a share on revenue of $2.82 billion for the
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