blizzard Activision Blizzard Q4 2016 Earnings Call Report

[Zadina 923]

Activision Blizzard has revealed its results for the last quarter of 2016, as well as some general information about the previous year. Overwatch was the big winner for Blizzard in 2016.

2016 was one the best years ever for Activision Blizzard and its Blizzard Entertainment division. To be more precise, Blizzard had its highest average Monthly Active Users (MAUs) in 2016 at 36 million, up 37% from 2016 and 87% from 2014. For the last quarter of 2016, Blizzard's MAUs rose to 41 million.

As far as player investment is concerned, Blizzard had record levels of quarterly and full-year in-game revenues, driven by World of Warcraft in-game content and continued strength of Overwatch customization items. An interesting detail is that Blizzard doesn't depend that much on World of Warcraft for its earnings (more than 60% of its segments revenues came from its other franchises) and that 20% of its revenues came from consoles.

There are plans for more linear media (that is comics, digital animated movies and perhaps even TV series or films) planned for all of Blizzard's titles - especially, though, for Overwatch. Blizzard's newest title proved to be a success since it became the company's fastest game ever to reach 25 million players, surpassing Diablo III's previous record.

Lastly, World of Warcraft's subscribers grew by 10% in 2016 and over 20% in the last months of 2016, proving that Legion has managed to revitalise the game. Hearthstone also saw its playerbase rise by 20% last year. There was no mention of Heroes of the Storm, Diablo III and StarCraft 2.

You can find the entire report here and the slideshow presentation here.

[ethme 3]

Is it good? Is it better? Is it going to the right direction? 

[greatCraft 29]

LONG LIVE BLIZZARD E.

[Darkjester79 47]

Good for Blizzard.  I hope they continue to go strong.

[MurkyFelix 51]

5 hours ago, ethme said:

Is it good? Is it better? Is it going to the right direction? 

It's hard to say for definite, like its up to perception. What can be taken from it is OverWatch is over-powered, WoW got more life from Legion and Hearthstone is a bit more popular. But mainly Overwatch.

[Morty 2]

Since heroes of the storm, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 got no mention. I am guessing they aren't that popular. I wonder if they will continue to support these three games in a few years.