It has been a rather great year for Activision Blizzard, revenue-wise. The company reported a revenue of $6.61 billion for the full year during the company’s yearly earnings report. This is a record number in the company history. The numbers are up by 42 per cent than 2015 when the company reported $4.66 billion in revenues.
The fourth quarter has been a winner for Activision Blizzard as it reported that their GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles, or earned) revenues were up by 49 per cent which is $2.01 billion compared to $1.35 billion in the same period, last year.
“Our record performance in 2016 further strengthened our position as the world’s leading standalone interactive entertainment company,” stated Activision Blizzard, chief executive officer, Bobby Kotick, in the financial release. “For the quarter and the year, we delivered our highest revenues, non-GAAP redefined operating margins and earnings per share, well surpassing our own expectations.”
Activision Blizzard stock up 9.5% after earnings.
Whew! pic.twitter.com/LT5qa4Ywpf
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 9, 2017
Digital revenues was the major earner for the company as it raked in $4.87 billion, which is almost double the figure of 2015 and 74 per cent of Activision’s total revenue. The increase in the revenue might also be contributed by the company’s acquisition of Stockholm-based mobile publisher, King, who are the force behind the successful IP, Candy Crush.
Blizzard contributed majorly to the revenue as well. It was the company’s 25th anniversary and their games performed well in the market. They released Overwatch in May, the smash-hit multiplayer which reached 25 million player-base faster than any other of the company’s IPs. The launch of the Legion expansion for World of Warcraft also raised the game’s player-base by 10 per cent. It’s card-based game, Hearthstone, also did fairly well. Overall, Blizzard contributed $2.43 billion, making up 39 per cent of the entire company’s revenue.
To summarise the impact of consumer reach, this statement should suffice:
“In 2016, consumers spent approximately 43 billion hours playing and watching Activision Blizzard content, on par with Netflix and over one-and-a-half times Snapchat.”
