Some netizens shared the changes in Activision Blizzard's revenue structure in the 15 years from 2008 to 2022. It can be clearly seen that Activision Blizzard's game sales account for an increasingly lower proportion of total revenue, and micro-transactions have gradually become the bulk of revenue.
In 2008, at the beginning of the merger of Activision and Blizzard, the company's revenue was still highly dependent on traditional "outright" product sales. Physical and digital games contributed about 62% of revenue, while in-app purchases, subscriptions and other services only accounted for 38%.
Between 2009 and 2012, product sales accounted for 75%. This was closely related to the strong performance of core IPs such as "Call of Duty", "Diablo" and "World of Warcraft", reflecting that console and PC complete game sales were still the mainstream of the industry at that time.
The turning point occurred around 2013-2015. With the rise of mobile games, online service-based games and continuous monetization models, Activision Blizzard's revenue structure is rapidly tilting toward "long-term operations."
By 2015, the two curves crossed for the first time, with in-app purchase and subscription revenue accounting for 52%, exceeding product sales.
Since then, the trend has been almost irreversible: since 2016, the proportion of product sales has rapidly dropped to about 30% and has stagnated for a long time, while in-game consumption, Battle.net, subscription services, etc. have stabilized at more than 70%, becoming the company's core source of cash.
By 2022, the year before it was acquired by Microsoft, Activision Blizzard's product sales revenue will only be 22%, while in-app purchases and subscriptions have reached 78%. This not only reflects the changes in the company's own strategy, but also reflects the reality of the transformation of the entire game industry from a "one-time buyout" to a "service-oriented, long-term payment" model.
This means that games will be updated more frequently and have a longer game life cycle. For manufacturers, it is a more stable and predictable revenue structure, but it also comes with higher requirements for continuous content output and player stickiness.
Player response:
Is this a coincidence? After pushing DEI, Activision Blizzard game sales have been steadily declining, and microtransactions have become a fig leaf
