Call of Duty Mobile has made $1.5 billion since launch

Call of Duty Mobile has made a hefty $1.5 billion in total lifetime earnings since it released in October 2019.

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Activision's meager Q4 earnings brief confirms two big things: Call of Duty's premium sales are down, but the franchise's F2P earnings have doubled on mobile. The games-maker says Call of Duty Mobile generated $1 billion in revenue through 2021, up more than 200% from the estimated $480 million earned from 2019-2020.

The F2P game is a safe harbor for the publisher (and soon Microsoft too). With its separate revenue stream and progression system, Call of Duty Mobile anchors the franchise and helps Activision weather any sales misses from its mainline games.

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Case in point: The publisher confirmed Vanguard's sales didn't beat Black Ops Cold War's thunderous 2020 debut, but that was always expected. 2020 was Call of Duty's best year due to many reasons: COD Mobile, for one, Warzone for two, and a Call of Duty mainline game released with a new console generation for three.

Remember that revenues are different than profits or net earnings. Activision still has to pay Apple and Google for every purchase made on those platforms, so Activision didn't get to keep those $1.5 billion in lifetime earnings.