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Activision Blizzard Made $1.2 Billion From Microtransactions In Just Three Months

Call of Duty microtransaction sales are four times higher this year compared to last year.

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Activision Blizzard has reported new financial numbers for the July-September period, and it was a gigantic quarter for the gaming publisher. One section of the company's business that did particularly well was microtransactions. For the three-month period, Activision Blizzard made $1.2 billion from microtransactions, which are called "in-game net bookings." This is a dramatic 69 percent improvement over the same period last year, when Activision Blizzard made $709 million from in-game net bookings.

Microtransactions are very big business for Activision Blizzard. For the latest reporting period, Activision Blizzard made $1.95 billion in revenue from all of its business combined, so the $1.2 billion figure from microtransactions represents more than half of the company's total revenue.

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Activision's Call of Duty franchise was a bright spot for microtransactions. Microtransaction sales from Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone were four times higher than the same period last year. Growth was always expected, with far more players jumping into Call of Duty than usual this year

Additionally, Activision reported that Modern Warfare's first-year sales are the highest in Call of Duty history, and two-thirds of sales came digitally.

Activision Blizzard also owns King, the makers of Candy Crush. Microtransaction revenue from King's games grew year-over-year, but a specific number was not divulged.

You can read the full report here at Activision Blizzard's website.

Activision will likely make plenty of money from their next Call of Duty game, Black Ops Cold War, which will be the first Call of Duty on Xbox Series X and PS5.

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