Activision, the “Call of Duty division” of Activision Blizzard, reports more than 150 million monthly active users (MAU) from January to March 2021 (Q4 2020: 128 million; Q3 2020: 111 million; Q2 2020: 125 million). Since the smartphone and free-to-play offensive with Call of Duty: Mobile and Call of Duty: Warzone, the number of MAUs in the Call of Duty series has more than tripled in the last two years (presentation).

Following the integration of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War into Call of Duty: Warzone, sales of the full version of Black Ops Cold War grew more than typically seen in a first quarter of 2021. Overall, revenue on consoles and PC, known as “net bookings,” grew more than 60 percent year-over-year. The first two – Season s of Black Ops Cold War and Warzone are among the top three – Season s ever in Call of Duty in terms of in-game sales. The current (third) – Season should also be able to keep up.

This year’s Call of Duty game is being developed by Sledgehammer Games and will also be linked to Warzone. Rumors swirl around World War II as the setting (working title Vanguard). Still, Activision expects that they would sell fewer copies compared to last year (i.e. 2020) – this statement came from Dennis Durkin (Activision’s Chief Financial Officer) from the previous investor conference. For a few weeks now, there has been speculation about quality issues with Call of Duty 2021, a late sales launch, and stronger competition with EA/DICE’s Battlefield 6 (we reported).

Call of Duty: Mobile continues to grow strongly in all areas (reach, engagement, and player investment). Player investment (definition) reached a new record high in March 2021. The April 2021 – Season is also showing record-breaking performance. With the release in China, the player base has also increased by tens of millions. The “player investment” of players from China is said to be comparable (in the first quarter) to that of players from Western territories.

In the conference with investors, Bobby Kotick (CEO) still said that they want to continue to expand development capacity (over 2,000 new hires) and increase the size of some teams by three times by the end of 2022 compared to 2019. The expansion is necessary to produce content faster, he said. Daniel Alegre (COO) also added that they need to produce content faster and more frequently for their games, especially for live games (Game as a Service). By the way, other titles apart from Call of Duty were not mentioned at all during the presentation of Activision’s business figures, not even Crash Bandicoot 4 or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2.

Overall, Activision’s revenue (January 2021 to March 2021) was $891 million. Operating income was $442 million (50 percent operating margin). The King mobile division benefited from a new record in-game revenue for Candy Crush. The division generated $609 million in revenue and operating profit of $203 million (33 percent operating margin).

Source: ATVI Annual Report, PC Gamer