Activision Blizzard delivered a solid fourth quarter that beat analysts expectations. The Call of Duty publisher generate earnings per share of $1.23 compared to estimates of $1.19. Its revenue surpassed $2.71 billion, which beat Wall Street’s outlook of $2.68 billion That has the company’s stock trending up approximately 2.8% in after-hours trading at $61.94 per share. And one of the main reasons for Activision’s strong performance is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which is selling faster than its immediate predecessor.
Modern Warfare’s sales jumped “by a double-digit percentage versus Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,” according to Activision’s earnings report. The contemporary military shooter saw growth on console. And its PC sales are up nearly 50% on Activision’s own Battle.net gaming service. At the same time, the game is driving more engagement and microtransaction spending. The publisher notes that Modern Warfare’s in-game net bookings were also significantly over Black Ops 4.
“Our fourth-quarter results exceeded our prior outlook for both revenue and earnings per share,” Activision Blizzard chief executive officer Bobby Kotick said. “Our recent Call of Duty success illustrates the scale of our growth potential, as we expanded the community to more players in more countries on more platforms than ever before.”
Call of Duty Mobile, Blizzard, and beyond
Call of Duty’s expansion to more platforms includes Call of Duty Mobile. That game launched during Q4 and racked up over 150 million players. It is also among the top-15 highest-grossing mobile games.
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But it’s not just about Call of Duty. During an interview on CNBC, Kotick said Activision plans to spend $5 billion on new games over five years. The plan is to get the company to over 1 billion monthly active users in that time.
That investment in content will involve Blizzard. That half of the publisher is still chugging along with Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and more.
