Blizzard Gets a Boost in Q2 2022 from Diablo Immortal

It is time once again for the Activision Blizzard quarterly financials and once again they are playing the “we’re being acquired so we don’t have to answer questions” card, just dropping the numbers on the investor relations site and calling it a day.

Activision Blizzard

Whatever.  Bobby Kotick is going to get even richer out of this.  There is no justice, but we were already pretty sure of that.

The overall company reported revenue of $1.64 billion, down from the $1.77 billion earned in Q1 2022, and even further down from the $2.3 billion a year ago in Q2 2021, but this time around it wasn’t Blizzard dragging down the team… not as much as last quarter at least.

Blizzard revenue in Q2 2022 was $401 million.

For once of late that was an uptick, as Blizz brought in just $274 million in Q1 2022.

Still, that was down from $419 million in Q4 2021, the $493 million posted in Q3 2021, the $433 posted in Q2 2021, and the $483 million posted in Q1 2021.

As for news about Blizzard, which is the only part of the company that I can be bothered to care about, the report had this to say:

The June launch of Diablo Immortal™, a deep and authentic Diablo experience designed for the mobile platform, marked the start of a rollout of substantial content across Blizzard’s key franchises. Diablo Immortal received high player ratings on mobile app stores around the world, and reached the top of the game download charts in more than 100 countries and regions following its launch. Over half of the game’s player accounts to date are new to Blizzard. The game ranked in the top-10 grossing games in U.S. app stores for the month of June.

Diablo IV, the next-generation installment in the genre-defining series, is planned for launch on PC and console in 2023. The title will support cross-play and cross-progression across platforms, and is designed to be the foundation for an engaging live service, providing ongoing storytelling and new content for many years to come.

In the Warcraft franchise, Blizzard plans to deliver an unprecedented level of WoW content in the coming months, with Wrath of the Lich King Classic launching on September 26 and World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the innovative next expansion for the modern game, slated for release later in the year. Blizzard is committed to growing its development resources to meet and exceed its community’s expectations, and at the end of the second quarter significantly bolstered its World of Warcraft team through the acquisition of Boston-based studio Proletariat.

During the second quarter, Blizzard unveiled Warcraft: Arclight Rumble™, an action-packed mobile strategy game that gives both new and existing fans an entirely different way to experience the Warcraft universe. Public testing of the game is underway in select regions.

Overwatch 2 is planned to launch in early access on PC and console on October 4. With a free-to-play live service model designed to provide frequent and substantial seasonal updates, this launch kicks off the next chapter for the acclaimed team-based action game.

Blizzard’s second quarter segment revenue and operating income were lower year-over-year but higher versus the first quarter. World of Warcraft net bookings declined versus a year-ago quarter that included the launch of Burning Crusade™ Classic, offsetting year-over-year growth for Hearthstone® and the contribution from the June launch of Diablo Immortal.

The one other thing that Diablo Immortal did was revive the long sinking Monthly Active Users number, the BS metric that Blizzard pulled out when reporting WoW subscribers became a litany of woe.  But they couldn’t even keep that metric up, and it has been in a steady decline since 2018, as noted over at Massively OP.   But Q2 2022 saw the MAU finally rise to 27 million, up from the 22 million in Q1, the nadir of the MAU reporting.

So Blizz has had some luck with Diablo Immortal, but they really need a strong Q3 with Overwatch 2 and Wrath of the Lich King Classic as well as a big Q4 with the WoW Dragonflight expansion to get back on track.

Related:

• Activision Blizzard – Q2 2022 Financial Report
• MOP – Activision-Blizzard Q2 2022