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Activision Blizzard
It said Tuesday that its latest World of Warcraft expansion sold 3.7 million units on its first day, making it the best-selling PC game ever.
Well OK.
Activision
(ticker: ATVI) based his claim that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands It is the best-selling PC game “of all time in the entire industry” according to its own records and reports from major distributors.
It is a bold claim and not easy to verify; It is also not clear what, if anything, it means for stocks.
Investor reaction was subdued at best, and the company’s shares rose less than 1% to $ 82.98 in midday trading Tuesday. Rivals
Electronic arts
(EA) rose 0.9%, to $ 132.04, and
Take-Two interactive software
(TTWO) advanced 0.8%, to $ 184.81.
TO Barron, we have no way of verifying the claim, but it certainly seems plausible. Typically, unit sales of 10 million over the life of a game are considered a much bigger hit in the market that includes consoles.
Activision’s latest boast marks an 8.8% increase since the franchise’s last expansion, the World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth launch in 2018. At the time, Activision said it sold 3.4 million units on day one. So it’s a claim: it was “one of the best-selling PC games of all time.”
Previously, 2016 World of Warcraft: Legion it sold 3.3 million copies on day one, which Activision claimed was once again one of the “best-selling PC games ever.” World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor it also sold 3.3 million copies on the first day. And in 2012 Activision used a different number to measure success and told investors that in its first full week of sales Mists of Pandaria sold 2.7 million units.
It seems to be a more positive sign than the fact that the company did not disclose its opening weekend sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which has become a habit.
Four of the last five years, Activision has boasted of its opening weekend sales, which amount to $ 500 million. This year, however, Activision departed from tradition and said nothing, which isn’t exactly a good sign for stocks, considering the importance of Call of Duty franchise to the business of the company.
When Activision released a figure last week, it said the entire franchise had generated a non-GAAP figure of $ 3 billion in bookings over the past 12 months. The number spoke of the strength of sales across the franchise, but it was a troubling sign of the success of Black ops, which has not been received as a critical success.
Activision shares are up 39% this year as
S&P 500
index gained 14%.
Write to Max A. Cherney at [email protected]
