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Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Q4 2020 results show 24% YoY revenue growth thanks to CoD & WoW

Activision Blizzard's Q4 2020 earnings boasted a strong quarter and year-over-year revenue increase largely on the success of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft sales and services.

TJ Denzer

February 4, 2021 2:30 PM

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As we reach the end of another fiscal quarter, many major companies in gaming and technology industries are beginning to release quarterly earnings reports. Activision and Blizzard alone are both huge forces in the industry, and through their combined efforts, the Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Q4 2020 earnings report showed some strong year-over-year growth thanks largely to Call of Duty and World of Warcraft content and services.

Activision Blizzard posted its Q4 2020 earnings report on its investor relations website on February 4, 2021. Some of the highlights of the overall reporting including an overall 24% increase in revenue year-over-year with net revenue of $8.09 billion. Much of this revenue increase is attributed to Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, which took up the lion’s share of highlights for Activision and Blizzard respectively. With Call of Duty: Warzone having offered players a free-to-play battle royale experience and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War offering another solid core game, Call of Duty boasted an overall player base of over 100 million monthly actives and a 40% year-over-year increase in premium unit sales.

On the Blizzard side of things, it was World of Warcraft’s latest expansion: Shadowlands, driving the numbers, with WoW Classic also helping drive its metrics. Though exact sales on World of Warcraft or Shadowlands did not appear in the highlights, Blizzard claimed it saw more player engagement and sales following Shadowlands than it’s seen in nearly a decade.

As always, Candy Crush helped to aid Activision Blizzard’s overall metrics and it was joined by early testing for Diablo Immortal, which Activision Blizzard claims was met with positive feedback from players. All of this together made for a rather potent Q4 2020.

Looking for more financials alongside the Activision Blizzard reports? Stay tuned to Shacknews for the latest and check out our full schedule of Q1 2021 earnings reports.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.