Activision Blizzard has announced that the Call of Duty franchise has made the company more than $3 billion during the last 12 months, spanning last month’s Black Ops Cold War, free-to-play battle royale title Warzone, and Call of Duty: Mobile, as well as merchandise, license fees, and so on.
Units sold through have risen by 40% year-on-year, with over 200 million people playing Call of Duty in some form or other over the past year. Indeed, Call of Duty: Warzone alone has attracted 85 million players since launching in March, and continues to expand with frequent updates. Black Ops Cold War and Warzone will also share Battle Pass progression from 10th December, which will no doubt help drive engagement in both games.
Activision says that’s an 80 percent increase in bookings year-to-date and a 40 percent increase in game sales year-over-year. Excluding the mobile game, the company estimates more than 200 million people have played the game across PC and consoles over the past 12 months. And 85 million people are playing Warzone, the free-to-play battle royale mode that was introduced back in March.
The company attributes this growth at least in part to the franchise’s “shared ecosystem business model,” as well as the large amount of post-release content that has kept players engaged. Executive VP and General Manager Byron Beede noted that Black Ops Cold War “is the next great chapter in Black Ops with an amazing campaign, an all-new zombies experience and of course, high-octane multiplayer. Launch is only the beginning. We are focused on building a continuous pipeline featuring a tremendous amount of free, post-launch content and events across the franchise.”
Come December 16, Activision will release the first season of Warzone content for Black Ops Cold War, which will include a new map and play mode, 30 new weapons, and a new Gulag experience.
