Gaming

Activision drives 43% jump in Microsoft’s quarterly gaming revenue

by Pelican Press
by Pelican Press 8 views 5 minutes read

Activision drives 43% jump in Microsoft’s quarterly gaming revenue

Microsoft has reported a major jump in revenue for its Xbox division during its first fiscal quarter.

For the three months ended September 30, 2024, gaming revenue was up 43% year-over-year, with all of the growth attributed to the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

While Xbox hardware revenue declined 29% year-over-year, this was more than offset by a 61% increase in content and services revenue, which included 53 points of net impact from its Activision Blizzard acquisition.

The company completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023, in the process taking ownership of franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch.

While the acquisition has significantly boosted Xbox’s earnings over the past year, its true value will become even clearer when Microsoft reports its second quarter earnings in three months’ time.

Last Friday, Activision’s Black Ops 6 became the first Call of Duty title to release on Game Pass at launch, and Microsoft will be hoping that the game drives a significant increase in subscribers.

Analysts have suggested Black Ops 6 could lead to up to four million new Game Pass subscribers.

Microsoft could share early sales figures for the game, and discuss its impact on Game Pass subscriptions, during its quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, which begins at 2.30pm PT / 9.30pm BST.

Update

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered the following comments on the company’s gaming division during its earnings call.

“One year since we closed our acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, we are focused on building a business positioned for long-term growth driven by higher margin content and services.

“You already see this transformation in our results as we diversify the way gamers access our content. We set new records for monthly active users in the quarter as more players than ever play our games across devices and on the Xbox platform.

“Game Pass also set a new Q1 record for total revenue and average revenue per subscriber, and as we look ahead our IP across our studios has never been stronger.

“Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day.

“And unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year-over-year. This speaks to our strategy of meeting gamers where they are by enabling them to play more games across the screens they spend their time on.”