Activision Blizzard is now making more money from PC gamers than console players

Activision Blizzard has outlined in its latest quarterly report the publishing giant is now making more money from PC gamers than console players, with its mobile division, King, raking in the most. 

Activision Blizzard’s latest financial year has been one of its more chaotic ones, with its merger with Microsoft having been blocked by UK regulators, threatening to upend the deal. Despite the drama, the studio’s core releases still have been streaming through at a usual cadence.

Overwatch 2 and CoD: Modern Warfare 2 came out to much fanfare last year, with multiple World of Warcraft expansions out now and the upcoming release of Diablo 4 bringing much-needed hype for the franchise as well. 

However, you may see a trend that some of the company’s biggest releases have been for PC gamers, and this reflects in the newest quarterly financial report. 

Activision Blizzard now makes more money from PC than consoles

According to the latest quarterly report for Q1 2023, PC has, for the first time, made more money for the company than consoles per platform. 

Historically, consoles have been more financially successful for Activision Blizzard, or that’s what we can glean from their annual reports. 

They reported $666 million in revenue from their PC platform in the last financial year, which is $27 million more than $639 million from consoles. However, neither platform comes anywhere close to mobile earnings, reporting $956 million in total revenue, thanks in large part to Candy Crush. 

In fact, in comparison to 2022’s Q1, there was an increase of 74% in revenue for PCs. With all other platforms also increasing in revenue to some degree, they recorded more than a billion dollars in increased total revenues than the last Q1 period.

Blizzard is responsible for more than half of the PC earnings, making $386 million of the total revenue. The report puts the increase in revenue from PC gamers due to their various releases, particularly highlighting Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft expansions, and the Diablo series. 

And if this continues, we may see PC be their number two most profitable platform by the end of the financial year. But there is still no topping Candy Crush.