Activision Blizzard's revenue from "in-game net bookings" reached $4 (£2.90) billion for 2017. Half of the money came from Candy Crush operator, King, and the other half came via their PC and console titles. EA reported $787 million in what it calls "live services" for the latest quarter.
Activision Blizzard said in their earnings report today that their revenue from "in-game net bookings" reached $4 (£2.90) billion for 2017. This includes stuff like DLC sales, loot boxes, and in-app purchases on mobile games.
In-game net bookings brought Activision Blizzard over $1 (£0.72)billion during the fourth quarter alone. Analyst Daniel Ahmad explained on Twitter, around $2 (£1.45) billion of Activision Blizzard's annual revenue from in-game net bookings came from the company's mobile subsidiary, King, which operates Candy Crush. The other $2 billion came from Activision Blizzard's console and PC titles, along with Activision Blizzard's efforts on mobile such as Hearthstone.
Blizzard
Call of Duty points a paid map pack
Overwatch offers the option of paying real world money for loot boxes that contain sprays, skins, voice lines and other cosmetic items. World of Warcraft has a significant in-game economy as well, letting people purchase items like mounts and pets.
Even though $4 billion is not a small amount of anything, really, Activision Blizzard is not alone. Electronic Arts recently stumbled into some hot water with the release of Star Wars: Battlefront and the game's use of microtransactions . EA reported $787 million in what it calls "live services" for the latest quarter.
2K Sports
Take-Two Interactive said earlier this week that GTA Online and NBA 2K18 recently set records for what the company calls "recurrent consumer spending."
Activision Blizzard, EA, and Take-Two all reported year-over-year gains for microtransaction revenue. This practice might not be very new but the more aggressive strategies of implementing it have caught the attention of many governments and their lawmakers .
