Activision Q1 microtransctions hit $1.343 billion, best Q1 in 6 years

Activision's recent Q1 earnings show a substantial spike in in-game player spending thanks to Warzone, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, World of Warcraft, and continued Candy Crush earnings.

Activision's Q1 microtransactions earnings are on fire. The company earned a monumental $1.343 billion in microtransaction and subscription revenue in Q1 2021, a record high for any other Q1 period and the second-best quarter for mTX earnings in Activision history.

The company's Q1 beat out any other holiday period in history, too. This says a lot: Activision releases its mainline Call of Duty games in Q4 every year complete with microtransaction gateways in these games. mTX has markedly increased throughout 2020, hitting an all-time high after Warzone launched in Q2 2020. It's worth noting that CoD microtransaction spending usually bleeds over into Q1 due to the November launches, but microtransactions are never from Call of Duty alone. This year, Activision-Blizzard had strong performance from Candy Crush and World of Warcraft, too.

That being said, Call of Duty's microtransactions were up 60% of Q1'20 and Warzone was a big driver of this growth.

"Call of Duty in-game net bookings on console and PC grew more than 60% year-over-year. The first two seasons of Black Ops Cold War and Warzone content were both in the top-three seasons in Call of Duty history for in-game net bookings. The third season, launched in April, is sustaining this strong run-rate, tracking in-line with the first two seasons," the company said in a press release.

"Finally, across our segment, in-game net bookings grew 40% year-over-year to $1.34 billion representing 65% of overall net bookings with each of Activision, Blizzard, and King contributing to the strong performance," Chief Commercial Officer Armin Zerza said in a recent earnings call.