Over half of Activision and Take-Two’s Q3 2022 net revenue was made on mobile – 52%, to be exact.
Both publishing giants released their Q3 2022 financial results today, and both confirmed that mobile is the top earning platform, accounting for more than PC and console combined at each company.
In the last three months up to September 30 2022, mobile accounted for 52% of Activision’s revenue. Console was 19%, PC was 20% and other revenue (mostly distribution and esports) was 8%.
And remarkably, at new Zynga owner Take-Two, mobile accounted for the exact same proportion of net revenue – 52% – with console on 40% and ‘PC and other’ on 8%.
Activision Blizzard said that overall revenue was down year-on-year from $2.07bn in Q3 2021 to this year’s earnings of $1.78bn. There was very little by way of extra detail or forward-looking statements, due to the ongoing Microsoft deal.
At Take-Two, YOY revenue was up 62% to $1.4bn thanks to Zynga, but the company lowered its outlook for the next fiscal year due to macroeconomic conditions and a tougher than expected mobile marketing landscape.
More highlights here:
Activision in brief:
- Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile has had over 20m pre-registrations on Google Play
- There’s still no date for Warcraft: Arclight Rumble, but it is “progressing well through regional testing”
- King’s in-game net bookings increased 8% YOY, driven by Candy Crush
- King’s payer numbers increased by a double-digit percentage YOY
- PvP features are driving engagement and spend in Candy Crush, with time spent in-game up YOY again
- King revenue grew 6% YOY, and advertising revenue was “consistent” YOY
- Candy Crush Saga has over 200m monthly active users
Take-Two in brief:
- GTA: The Trilogy and Star Wars Hunters are now listed as TBA – so don’t expect them anytime soon
- Take-Two is targeting “$100m in efficiencies” from the Zynga deal – effectively $100m in layoffs and closures. Looks like Playdots and Zynga Helsinki were just the beginning
- Rollic’s hypercasual portfolio was a highlight and mentioned several times, though no specific figures were revealed
- There was a fun reference to ‘going direct to consumer’ on mobile – possibly a reference to an Apple/Google tax-dodging web shop
- On bringing 2K IP to mobile, the response was ‘stay tuned’, with CEO Zelnick keen to stress the big difference between console and mobile players
There’s more data and analysis on what’s powering Activision and Take-Two’s mobile earnings here.