In something of a tipping point for traditional gaming as we know it, Activision Blizzard has amassed more than half of its April – June (Q2) revenue from mobile games in 2022.
According to the company’s recent financial report, it generated £535 million from PC and console sales in Q2 2022 – £275 million ($332 million) on PC and £310 million ($376 million) on consoles – while a staggering £688 million ($831 million) came from its “mobile and ancillary” business, which the video game developer/publisher says “primarily include(s) revenues from mobile devices” which is over 50 per cent of its entire net revenue for that period.
Mobile developer King Digital Entertainment is one of the main reasons for the staggering rise in revenue for mobile after Activision acquired the company in 2016. King – the maker of Candy Crush and countless other hit casual games – is now the most successful developer under Activision Blizzard.
One year ago, both mobile, console and PC earnings were £658m/$795m, £612m/$740m, and £520m/$628m respectively, meaning that only Activision Blizzard’s mobile business has seen an increase in net revenue year-on-year while console revenue has almost halved.
The financial report also shows that Diablo Immortal increased the number of Blizzard user numbers and gave the company a substantial increase in monthly active user engagements.
After a setback of 22 million monthly users for the quarter ending in March 2022, Diablo Immortal helped Blizzard get back on its feet with 27 million users for the quarter ending in early July.
The results also show that the company’s active user numbers have only slightly recovered, compared to where it was over one year ago, and revenue remains slightly down YoY.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
