The new numbers from Activision Blizzard are in. World of Warcraft has lost more players, while Destiny and Call of Duty are thriving. And with all that money, Activision has bought Candy Crush – for nearly 6 billion.
World of Warcraft at 5.5 million paying players
Activision releases its business numbers quarterly. For World of Warcraft it still looks grim, having lost another 100,000 paying players, now down to 5.5 million. That’s still a lot. This quarter did not see a landslide loss of players like last time. Nonetheless, it remains the lowest level in 10 years.
Update: World of Warcraft will no longer release player numbers
Destiny is still a super hit
The shooter Destiny is thriving – it now has 25 million registered users, up from 20 million in May. With “The Taken King”, they added even more. Destiny players played on average 3 hours, and it is now the “most-watched console game” on Twitch.
Otherwise, here are some more numbers: Call of Duty is bringing in serious cash, 7 million people signed up for the Overwatch Beta, and that doesn’t even include China. Hearthstone had its most profitable quarter ever so far.
Activision buys Candy Crush makers for 5.9 billion dollars
In the last quarter, Activision generated 1.04 billion US dollars, with digital revenues becoming increasingly important.
And what does one do with all this money? They buy the “Candy Crush” developer King for 5.9 billion to enter the growing mobile market.
3.6 billion was raised “from own money that was stored outside the USA”, the remaining 2.3 billion was borrowed from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Activision Blizzard paid about 1 billion over the estimated market value of “King Digital Entertainment”.
Activision Blizzard is happy to welcome the 1600 employees of King into its own family.
