Warzone boosts Activision microtransactions to over $1 billion in 3 months

Activision Blizzard has confirmed Warzone is indeed the mammoth money-maker everyone was always expecting it to be; the ever-growing Modern Warfare battle royale boosted the Call of Duty publisher’s total Q3 2020 earnings to $1.77 billion, including $1.2 billion in microtransactions.

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Activision Blizzard, the overseers in charge of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, shattered expectations when they unveiled their Q3 2020 earnings on Oct. 29. The publisher made $1.77 billion over the past three months.

Much of that, Dexerto can confirm the publishers revealed in an investors call on Thursday, was due to the popularity of Warzone. The new Modern Warfare battle royale has gone from strength to strength since its mega-sized release on March 10 earlier this year.

According to Activision in the call, Warzone alone was responsible for bringing in a $773m slice of the total $1.7b sum. Modern Warfare sales also added to the haul.

Activision’s Blizzard arm also raked in a hefty chunk of the Q3 profits. Hearthstone and World of Warcraft ⁠— which is just four weeks from its next expansion ⁠— made $411m. Finally, King’s mobile juggernaut ‘Candy Crush’ dominated with $536m.

Warzone’s dominance in the past eight months comes as no surprise. Recently, the Call of Duty battle royale overtook genre leader Fortnite as the most popular free-to-play title on the market for teen gamers, according to Yahoo Finance.

This has translated directly into Activision’s financial success. 

The publishers reported close to two-thirds of Warzone players either owned the full Modern Warfare title, or purchased the 2019 game’s multiplayer and campaign after playing.

• Read more: HusKerrs becomes first Warzone star to hit $100k earnings

“What we’ve seen with Call of Duty is an amazing transformation,” Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard, said. “The phenomenon we had with Warzone is so many people are buying the premium Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”

Call of Duty microtransactions were also four times higher thanks to Warzone.

In raw numbers, this has led to a huge 38% increase in revenue year on year, or a $490 million spike between Q3 2019 and the new Q3 2020 earnings.

“Warzone has really become an incredible addition to the franchise. It’s a central place where we can connect the entire Call of Duty community,” Kotick continued.

• Read more: Warzone to combine with Black Ops Cold War in December

“I think maintaining that tight connection to the game is really important, especially for players who want to check out everything Call of Duty has to offer. You saw that with Modern Warfare. We plan to continue that into the future.”

Call of Duty has always been a juggernaut seller in the gaming community. It is now expected to continue its momentum into Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War early next month.

Black Ops Cold War will launch on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on Nov. 13 with all three connected via crossplay. World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Shadowlands, is also finally set to drop soon after, on Monday, Nov. 23.