During its Second Quarter 2023 Financial Report, Activision Blizzard stated that PC is currently a more profitable platform than both Xbox Series X and PS5.
According to the publisher, for the 6 months of the year, PC made $1.25 billion. For comparison purposes, all consoles combined made $1.19 billion in that same period. However, even the PC platform was no match for mobile. Mobile is currently the golden cow of Activision Blizzard as it brought in $1.9 billion.
Now in case you’re wondering, the success of both the mobile and PC is not only due to the Diablo series. Interestingly enough, Call of Duty also has more players on PC than on both Playstation and Xbox.
Now while Call of Duty is filled with microtransactions, we can at least say that, on a tech level, its PC version was solid. In fact, Modern Warfare 2 was among our most optimized PC games of 2022. And as for Diablo 4, it can run silky smooth on a wide range of PC configurations.
Activision Blizzard is the second publisher for which the PC outperforms consoles. Capcom has also stated that PC is more profitable these days than consoles. And, as we all know, almost all of Capcom’s games perform extremely well on PC.
What’s also funny is Microsoft’s comments regarding COD. Microsoft has stated that it was a mistake for Call of Duty to skip Steam. And, in a way, these numbers prove that MS was actually right (as the latest COD games launch simultaneously on Steam and Battlenet).
Lastly, given those profits, I don’t expect Activision Blizzard to change its overall attitude. The company is making a lot of money, despite the past few boycotts. So yeah, expect more microtransactions and “Games As A Service” features in its future games. Unless Microsoft steps in and changes that.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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If they keep nerfing D4 it might not be so profitable!
Now then, Microsoft should ask them to release CTR on PC and release raven, radical and infinity ward to work on more games other than cod. It’s been more than a decade since any other first party game from Activision. Imagine Prototype 3, Gun 2, Blur 2, True Crime 4 and more. But it’s a wishful thinking and I know it won’t be true.
51% mobile, no wonder video games industry is dying.
Too many noobs on the toilet playing sh*t games
Exactly
most probably asian market
Steam launch was nice to see for sure, especially since Steam offered some crazy discounts on almost all recent COD games recently, more than 50% on some. Blizzard’s own stores never had those discounts here in India, and the full price is too much for those only wanting to play the campaign like me.
lol. Publishers decide prices, not Steam.
Yes but thats not how things work. If steam is having summer sales or any other you will be stupid as o company not to participate. Its like missing out on potential sale. In a way you are force to discount.
No, that’s not how things ‘work’. Publishers decide wether or not to enter a sale, period.
I think he talks about the regional pricing, he mentioned India.
The campaign is still online only so I’m never touching it.
Those servers go down and you’ll never get to play it ever again.
Anime is for pedos
https://archive.fo/Ia5ZH
Nice, I was looking for a collection of projectionist nonces, and goddamn, what a collection! Way more people on that than I expected.
Inb4 “Hurrdurr u liek lolis then!” I certainly don’t. We should drop off actual p3d0s along with loli consoomers on some remote island and have them fight to the end. Make a PPV event out of it too.
It’s like a meme at this point. It just happens every time.
Pathetic PC Blizzard players are completely addicted, they spend even more on microtransactions than mobile players.
Yay
Yay
COD must be really bad now cause MW2 was made fully optimized for console users. That’s why MW2 runs so well on AMD hardware on PC.
Off topic : Just wanna say thanks to this community for everything , I’m leaving video games and everything related to it effective immediately . Thanks John for your mods and Unreal 5 spams . Its been a good run but its time now to move on 😊
??
I think this medium offered what it had to offer , its too derivative for me now and there are other reasons too which I wont discuss 😊.
That’s too bad that you are leaving, as you were one of the better ones here. Farewell and all the best! As per your user name, you truly are a good friend.
That’s too bad that you are leaving, as you were one of the better ones here. Farewell and all the best! As per your user name, you truly are a good friend.
I hope that’s nothing serious, well, good luck mate
Yeah milking the sht outta users with microtransactions. Warzone has brought them billions since corona hit back in 2019.
I don’t think Activision is really part of the gaming industry, their games are too predatory to be considered kosher. Activision games should require its customers to be 18+ to play given all the psychological tricks in play.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to brag about here.
1. This uptick in PC revenue can be mainly attributed to Diablo IV’s launch since Blizzard just had its first $1 billion quarter revenue (selling 10M copies in less than a month surely helped), and as far as I know, Blizzard’s main audience is on PC;
2. 73% of Activision Blizzard’s revenue came from microtransactions, subscriptions and Battle passes. That’s not something to celebrate;
3. CoD’s popularity is due to Warzone being free. That’s what PC players love—free things. It has a strong twitch following as well, which contributes to its lasting popularity.