Call of Duty earnings jump by 200%, helps Activision earn $3.9 billion

2020 was Activision's best year in history, and Call of Duty's billion-dollar earnings were a big part of its massive success.

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Call of Duty revenues have doubled in 2020, helping propel Activision-Blizzard to its new all-time $8 billion revenue high.

Call of Duty earnings jump by 200%, helps Activision earn $3.9 billion 1

Activision has adapted the Call of Duty franchise into the perfect storm of engagement and monetization. The combination of the free-to-play Warzone, multiple annualized premium releases, and a monetized mobile game shows Activision has all the bases covered. The trifecta becomes much more potent when an online cross-platform, cross-progression, and cross-SKU framework ties these games together.

This forward-thinking plan is paying off big time. Throughout 2020, Call of Duty revenues were up 200% over last year, and drove Activision segment earnings to $3.9 billion (+78% YoY). In-game spending on microtransactions and battle passes in Call of Duty games is also up a whopping 50% in Q4, and helped spike the company's total-year mTX revenues to $4.8 billion.

Call of Duty earnings jump by 200%, helps Activision earn $3.9 billion 32

Activision CFO Dennis Durkin notes Q4 earnings were up thanks to CoD:

"For the quarter, Activision revenue of $1.66 billion grew 16%, driven primarily by Call of Duty in-game revenues. Operating income rose 12% to $780 million, with an operating margin of 47%."

2021 will be another year of record earnings. Activision expects to make $8.22 billion in 2021, and confirms that Warzone will connect three mainline Call of Duty games throughout the year: Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, and the new annualized CoD coming in 2021.

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Derek joined the TweakTown team in 2015 and has since reviewed and played 1000s of hours of new games. Derek is absorbed with the intersection of technology and gaming, and is always looking forward to new advancements. With over six years in games journalism under his belt, Derek aims to further engage the gaming sector while taking a peek under the tech that powers it. He hopes to one day explore the stars in No Man's Sky with the magic of VR.

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