Activision Blizzard revenues jump 35% as everything clicks

gamesindustry.biz:

Activision Blizzard suffered a setback today with the UK blocking its sale to Microsoft, but the publisher can take some solace in its freshly reported first quarter financial results, which showed growth across every division and major franchise.

The company had originally told investors it would announce the results April 27 after the close of trading. A representative told GamesIndustry.biz, "We moved up earnings to answer questions that are already answered in the earnings materials we planned to release tomorrow."

"First quarter growth was broad-based, with net bookings increasing year-over-year in each of our five largest intellectual properties: Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo," the company said.

"We continued to deliver strong results for our intellectual properties on the strategically-important mobile platform, with mobile net bookings growing double-digits year-over-year, driven by Candy Crush, Call of Duty Mobile and last year's launch of Diablo Immortal."

The Activision segment saw revenue up 28% year-over-year to $580 million, as Modern Warfare 2 has not only set some of its own records, but is also facing an easier-than-usual comparison against the prior year's Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Despite that, the Activision segment's monthly active users were down 2% year-over-year and 12% quarter-over-quarter to $98 million.

While Blizzard remains the smallest of the company's three divisions with $435 million in segment revenue, it showed the largest percentage gain of the quarter with sales up 62% to $435 million.

It noted that Overwatch 2 engagement had decreased from the previous quarter (when the game launched), but added that hours played were still about double what