Activision Blizzard earns more from in-game purchases despite fewer players

Activision Blizzard has made more money from in-game purchases such as DLC, loot boxes and microtransactions. This figure came in at about a billion dollars. There were fewer monthly active players in this first quarter, when no major games were released.

The publisher reports that the billion dollars in revenue from in-game purchases, which are listed under the heading in-game net bookings, is a record for a first quarter. Revenue from in-game purchases is not detailed by game. Total revenues from digitally and physically sold products and services, such as license revenue and merchandise, came in at $1.38 billion, up from $1.20 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

Activision Blizzard reports that it had a total of 374 million monthly active players. In the first quarter of 2017, this number was still 431 million players. The lion’s share of the 374 million monthly active players came from the mobile division, King. This division’s games, such as those in the Candy Crush Saga franchise, have had 285 million players; in 2017 that was still 342 million players. Activision games had 51 million monthly active players in the quarter and Blizzard had 38 million. At Activision this represents a slight increase, while at Blizzard this figure fell slightly compared to the same period in 2017.

Activision Blizzard’s quarterly net sales came in at $1.97 billion, compared to $1.73 billion a year earlier in the first three months. Product sales accounted for $720 million of current quarterly sales, compared to $509 million in this category in the first quarter of 2017. Net profit came in at $500 million; that was $426 million a year earlier.