Activision enjoys pandemic-level player spending in Q2 2021

Activision's Q2 earnings outperformed expectations on the back of consistent player spending.

Activision just reported its best Q2 in the last ten years, with net revenues ($2.296 billion), operating income ($959 million), and net income ($876 million) all setting new decade highs. Player spending on in-game content was a major driver for earnings and Activision's Q2 continues riding the wave of spending surge driven by last year's pandemic.

In Q2 2021, Activision-Blizzard made $1.319 billion from in-game spending on DLC, add-ons, subscriptions, and microtransactions across key games like Candy Crush, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. In-game net bookings accounted for 68% of total net bookings ($1.9 billion). King made the lion's share of mTX revenues with an all-time record high of $635 million segment revenues, and King also had 255 million MAUs as compared to Activision's 127 million MAUs.

Activision has enjoyed high player spending metrics for the past four quarters since the pandemic. In Q1 2020, the company set a new watermark for quarterly in-game spending with Warzone's launch, hitting $1.374 billion. Post-pandemic spending has yet to moderate for Activision and the trend has caused the company to raise its full-year outlook to a record $8.5 billion.

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2021 earnings at-a-glance

• Net Revenue - $2.296 billion
• Operating Income - $959 million
• Net Income - $876 million

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