Overwatch, World of WarCraft, and Call of Duty boost Activision Blizzard's Q3 revenue and profit

Although the company forewent sharing sales, plenty of other numbers illustrated recent success stories.

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Like 2K and other publishers this week, Activision Blizzard reported earnings for the quarter ending September 30 (via GameSpot).

Those earnings were devoid of sales, but Activision Blizzard did provide plenty of other numbers to illustrate its revenue and profit growth. 

Overwatch hit 20 million registered users, the fastest game to reach that milestone in Blizzard's history. Speaking of milestones, World of WarCraft's Legion expansion pack sold 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, meeting the record set by previous expansions.

Call of Duty, the crown jewel of the Activision half of the Activision Blizzard equation, posted impressive stats as well: more than twice as many customers bought DLC for Call of Duty games, than purchased season passes and individual map packs compared to last year's sales. Average revenue per Call of Duty player got a boost as well.

The company reported $1.57 billion for its third quarter, a record for that time period. Revenue earned from digital sources shot up 114 percent compared to this time in 2015, amounting to $1.34 billion.

For the quarter, Activision had 482 million active users across all of its games—that includes titles published by Activision as well as those under the auspices of Candy Crush developer King. Meanwhile, 42 million active users played Blizzard games, Overwatch and World of WarCraft in particular.

Activision Publishing reported 46 million active users during the quarter. Its games span Call of Duty, Destiny, and Skylanders in particular. Destiny saw a quarter-over-quarter increase, likely attributed to the September release of its Rise of Iron expansion.

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.

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