You've probably heard the phrase "less is more" enough to wish you heard it less, the proof of its truthfulness could not be more clear than in the case of Activision Blizzard.
According to their financial results for the third quarter of 2020, microtransactions were the most lucrative part of Activision Blizzard's business by far, accounting for $1.2 billion out of the $1.77 billion in total net bookings.
This means that 61.5 per cent of their net bookings can be traced to in-game purchases, or as Activision Blizzard call them - in-game net bookings. To be fair though, it certainly sounds more appropriate than microtransactions, as there's nothing micro about the final result.
Much like the rest of the video game market, Activision Blizzard got some wind in their sails thanks to social distancing and whatnot. This led to significant gains across the board and compared to 2019, we're looking at 69 per cent total improvement.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone are apparently leading the way in sales. In fact, it turns out that the two raked in as much as four times what they did last year, earning them the highest first-year sales in the franchise's history.
If we had to pick, however, we would've put our money on Candy Crush Saga, but Activision Blizzard didn't go into much detail here. They did say that King's microtransactions also grew in profitability year-on-year, but they didn't say by how much.
Activision
It's pretty clear that Activision Blizzard aren't likely to abandon their microtransaction-laden strategy anytime soon, as they've become the company's golden goose. Players spending peanuts on Call of Duty trinkets is the way to go, and the cheapness of microtransactions on the user end is anything but for the two's gold reserves.
You can find the report here . Thanks, Gamespot .
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