If Activision does one thing right, it's create mammoth gaming franchises. It owns Call of Duty and Skylanders, while Blizzard has World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, all of which are worth more than a billion dollars as game series and IPs. Now though, you can add Overwatch to that list, as in less than a year since its original release, it's worth more than a billion itself.
The latest earnings report to come out of Activision Blizzard tells us that more than 30 million people are playing the class-based shooter - that's pretty amazing considering Overwatch is a fully priced title and not free to play like Hearthstone. That collectable card battler has seen its audience rise to 70 million recently, with an active player base that is higher than ever.
The strength of those titles plus the continued stability of platforms like Call of Duty and its various incarnations, as well as King's Candy Crush Saga, Farm Witch and Bubble Heroes, meant that Activision Blizzard earned more than $1.4 billion in Q2 so far, with a projected $6.1 billion expected for 2017 in total.
This represents a sizeable increase over 2016 figures, where net revenue was $1.4 billion for the year. In comparison, Activision Blizzard expects 2017 to see it raise more than $1.7 billion.
Looking forward, it expects Call of Duty WWII to be another big earner when it debuts in November, as well as new content offerings for previous titles in the series with new zombie modes.
Which Blizzard games do you guys enjoy on a regular basis?
