Activision Blizzard is currently valued at $72 billion
Microtransactions and COVID-19 are key factors
Activision Blizzard's total worth is now estimated to be around a whopping $72 billion (£52.5bn) with stock prices sitting at $95 a share—the highest it has been since 1984 (when there were many, many less shares in the company). As noted by The Wall Street Journal the company's share price has been on a steady rise since December 2020.
One factor in this increase is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic boosting Activision's profits, with more people being at home and having more time to dedicate to gaming. The games industry as a whole has seen huge profits this year, with the UK industry surpassing £4 billion($5.6bn) for the first time in 2020.
Microtransactions have also proven to be mighty profitable for Activision Blizzard. It reported $1.2 billion in earnings from microtransactions during the last financial quarter, making up over half of its total revenue. The majority of microtransaction sales came from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, the combined success of which saw the COD playerbase on PC increase ten-fold last year.
Activision Blizzard has been on one heck of a run in recent times, with Warzone expanding Call of Duty's appeal hugely and a wide range of ongoing games that look to be in rude health. The company will announce its final earnings for the financial year on February 4, when we'll find out how the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has gone down.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.
Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says his studio's new game won't be that big after all: 'it's not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again'
'Calm down!' says Facepunch Studios: Garry's Mod successor s&box is getting a fan-requested sandbox mode and an alternative to 'Sausage Men'