Activision Blizzard Second Quarter 2016 Results Recap: IW preorders down, in-game content sales increased

Activision Blizzard announced their second quarter 2016 results earlier and revealed some interesting details about what’s been happening in the company over the last few months. In this post, we recap all of the things they talked about.

The first thing they revealed was that Call of Duty in-game content sales were at a record high this year, driven by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 DLC map packs and Supply Drops. They revealed that in-game content sales has doubled since last year for Call of Duty.

From May 2016 through August 2016, Activision Blizzard (the entire company, across all of the publisher’s titles) made over $1 billion just from in-game content sales. The press release notes that in-game content refers to DLC Map Packs, Loot Boxes, Supply Drops, and more. Activision also confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 continues to be the best selling next-generation console title life to date, according to NPD data.

In regards to Call of Duty esports, Activision announced that the Call of Duty World League had over 33 million views accumulated for the Stage 1 events, which is a 5 times increase compared to last year. Activision states that they anticipate that the upcoming Call of Duty World League Championship (set to take place September 1-4 at Call of Duty XP), which will feature a $2 million prize pool, will be the most watched Call of Duty esports event to date.

In regards to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Activision CEO confirmed that overall preorder numbers are down this year compared to last year. They stated that the company has made marketing adjustments, including having a huge event at Call of Duty XP to reveal Infinite Warfare multiplayer and talk more about the entire game. Activision CEO said that the team at Infinity Ward is extremely excited and proud of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

Activision also confirmed that the preorders for Call of Duty Infinite Warfare’s collector’s editions (Legacy, Digital Legacy, Digital Deluxe, and Legacy Pro) are higher than any Collector’s Edition in Call of Duty, thanks to the editions including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. Activision CEO said that “Modern Warfare Remastered is the best bonus content we’ve ever offered.” They also revealed that the digital editions are doing well in terms of preorder numbers.

Activision CEO followed up to talk more about the response to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. He said that “,” revealing that the title won 25+ awards at E3 and has received the most positive response from press than ever before. Activision has been promoting that GameInformer awarded the title ‘at E3 across its site and social media. He also talked about the fact that, at this time last year, all of the modes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 were revealed, which resulted in higher preorder numbers at the time, and the title also had a beta as a preorder incentive. It appears that Activision believes Call of Duty XP will help give players many more details about Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which might help increase the preorder numbers.

For all of Activision’s (only Activision titles, which includes Call of Duty, Destiny, Skylanders, and more), the number of active players reached a record high for this time of the year — 49 million players. Activision continues to state that monthly active users for Call of Duty has been the highest this year than ever before.

Activision also re-confirmed that the fourth DLC Map Pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will launch after the Call of Duty XP event, which takes place September 2-4, first on PlayStation 4. The company stated that fans at Call of Duty XP can go hands on with DLC 4, alongside Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.

SOURCE: Activision Blizzard (and Activision Slides)