blizzard Activision Blizzard Q4 2020 Earnings Call

[Staff 1,502]

Here's a recap of Activision Blizzard's latest earnings call from yesterday. We learn that Diablo Immortal will launch later this year, and we probably won't be hearing about a Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2 release date until 2022.

Q4 2020 Earnings Call Highlights

• Strong execution enabled Activision Blizzard to exceed our fourth-quarter outlook, capping a remarkable year for the company in which revenues grew 25%, operating income increased 70%, and earnings per share increased 45% Y/Y.
• Activision Blizzard delivered better-than-expected results in the fourth quarter and is entering 2021 with strong momentum.
• In 2020, Activision Blizzard saw the benefits of fundamental changes to our core franchises, including deeper and more consistent engagement with current and new players across multiple platforms. Much of our growth was driven by strong execution in premium content, in-game operations, expanding our presence on mobile, and ramping new engagement models.
• Blizzard had 29 million monthly active users (MAUs), increasing year over year for the sixth consecutive quarter. Strong engagement across both Classic and modern modes drove full-year WoW net bookings growth of 40% year over year, to the highest level in nearly a decade.
• World of Warcraft
  • In Q4, franchise net bookings grew Y/Y sharply, driven by strong sales of the Shadowlands expansion, subscriber growth, and high participation in value-added services.
  • Player and engagement trends since the Shadowlands release are stronger than levels typically seen at this point after an expansion launch.
• Diablo IV & Overwatch 2 (?)
  • Activision Blizzard  are making significant progress against their development pipeline for other key intellectual properties, which they expect to fuel further growth in 2022 and beyond.
• Diablo Immortal
  • On mobile, the first stage of regional testing for Diablo Immortal in December and January was met with very positive feedback and strong engagement metrics. More players will get to experience the game in further rounds of testing ahead of the launch planned for later this year.
• Overwatch League
  • The Overwatch franchise continues to engage its community with in-game content and celebrate its players in the Overwatch League, where teams are preparing for the start of the fourth season in April.
• BlizzConline
  • The Blizzard team is looking forward to channeling the spirit of BlizzCon to engage and celebrate the community at BlizzConline on February 19th and 20th, where they will share more about the plans for their franchises.

Source

[Boothyp 48]

46 minutes ago, Staff said:

Player and engagement trends since the Shadowlands release are stronger than levels typically seen at this point after an expansion launch

Global pandemic will help with this........

Certainly true for me, much more "achieved" so early in an expansion, due to naff all else to do...............