Activision Blizzard has reported new financial figures for the July-September period, and it was a gigantic quarter for the game publisher. One section of the company’s business that performed particularly well was microtransactions. During the three-month period, Activision Blizzard earned $ 1.2 billion from microtransactions, which are called “net in-game bookings.”
This is a dramatic 69 percent improvement over the same period last year, when Activision Blizzard earned $ 709 million in net in-game pre-orders.
Microtransactions are big business for Activision Blizzard. For the latest reporting period, Activision Blizzard made $ 1.95 billion in revenue from all of its businesses combined, so the $ 1.2 billion microtransaction figure represents more than half of the company’s total revenue.
Activision’s Call of Duty franchise was a bright spot for microtransactions. Microtransaction sales for Modern Warfare and the Battle Royale Warzone game were four times higher than in the same period last year. Growth was always expected, with far more players jumping into Call of Duty than usual this year.
Additionally, Activision reported that Modern Warfare’s first-year sales are the highest in Call of Duty history, with two-thirds of sales done digitally.
Activision Blizzard also owns King, the makers of Candy Crush. Microtransaction revenue from King’s games increased year-over-year, but a specific number was not disclosed.
You can read the full report here on the Activision Blizzard website.
