Now that 2014 has come to a close, Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s largest gaming companies, has revealed their yearly revenue along with other statistics for the year.

As the name would suggest, Activision Blizzard is the holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment, and in 2009 their revenue was only outmatched by Nintendo. The most notable games published by Activision are the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series, with Blizzard Entertainment being behind the renowned Warcraft and Starcraft franchises.

Activision Blizzard ended 2014 with a revenue of $4.81bn, falling slightly short of the $4.85bn they achieved in 2013. Despite not matching the yearly revenue of the previous year, the company’s reports show that $1.58bn was generated in revenue during the final fiscal quarter, more than was achieved in 2013, with sales rising by 11%.

Reaching this number for the final quarter was undoubtedly aided by the release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in November, which went on to become the United States’ best-selling game of the year. This is particularly impressive considering the fact that the franchise has been declining in popularity, with sales of Advanced Warfare being down 27% compared to 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts.  The sci-fi shooter Destiny was also released in the latter half of 2014, yet a massive 16 million people have already registered to play it; good news for Activision who spent $500m developing and marketing the game.

However, it wasn’t only Activision releasing new titles last year. Back in March 2014, Blizzard released Hearthstone, an online turn-based card game linked the to Warcraft universe, which already has over 25 million players. Furthermore, the fifth expansion to World of Warcraft was released, which was entitled Warlords of Draenor. Despite the game being over 10 years old, the latest expansion was able to push the number of subscribers paying monthly back over 10 million.

With new titles such as the first-person shooter, Overwatch, and the hero-brawler, Heroes of the Storm, to be released later this year, 2015 also looks to be a promising year for the company.

With such a variety of genres being launched, Activision Blizzard is now a strongly solidified brand and their commercial risks have been substantially reduced through their diversification. If you would like some advice on how to solidify your brand, either through diversification or the protection of your intellectual property rights, please contact our Corporate and Commercial Department on 01245 584515 or at [email protected]

 

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