The Five Most Profitable Activision Blizzard Video Games

If you love to play video games, there is no doubt that you have or have been an Activision Blizzard game fan.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California, and is the final evolution of a company that began as a 3^rd-party developer of games for the Atari Video Game Console as far back as the late 1970s.  After many iterations, the company was approved for purchase by Microsoft in 2023, and the original CEO left the company at the end of the year. Activision Blizzard now operates with three fundamental business segments.

• Activision Publishing
• Blizzard Entertainment
• King

Even if you only play video games on occasion, you have likely had a better chance of playing an Activision Blizzard game than a game made by any other competing company. Somehow, the company and its philosophy managed to tap into exactly what the gaming public wanted. Read on to learn how we ranked Activision Blizzard's most profitable games.

Our Methodology

Over the years, Activision Blizzard has created and marketed many of the most popular games of all time. Of course, they have made a great deal of profit along the way. The last time annual financial results were released by Activision Blizzard was February 6, 2023  – prior to Microsoft’s ultimate acquisition. At that time, Activision Blizzard reported –

• $7.54 billion in revenue
• $1.52 billion in net income

According to Games Industry Biz, while growth remains steady and broad-based, four of the five most profitable Activision Blizzard Video Games (or as they are known in the legal world, “intellectual properties”)  on our list – showed increasing year-over-year growth - Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft, and Overwatch.

So, do you know which Activision Blizzard's most profitable game made our list when we compared each video game’s lifetime revenues? Check out our list below.

The Five Activision Blizzard Most Profitable Games

Activision Blizzard delivered profitable video games, time and time again.

5. Overwatch- $1.4 Billion In Lifetime Revenues

Overwatch was released as an online team-based game; however, the game is played from a first-person shooter perspective. The game featured several game modes for casual play, competitive ranked play, and what began as a nuanced aspect of gaming -  esports competitions, including Blizzard's Overwatch League.  Overwatch received "universal acclaim" when released and garnered many awards, including Game of the Year. Some of its success is due to innovations like the company encouraging fans to contribute artistically to the game’s content.  

4.  Skylanders Series - Over $3 Billion In Lifetime Revenues

Skylanders is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game series developed by Activision. Over the years, various editions of the Skylander have been released to the public. However, the game’s premise - which uses a technological innovation – the Portal of Power – has always been the game's true appeal. The game was released for a number of platforms and even won a Kids Choice Award for Favorite Video Game in 2016 – five years after the release of Spyro’s Adventure, the first in the series.

3. World of Warcraft (WOW) - Over $9  Billion In Lifetime Revenues

Released in 2004, World of Warcraft is a multiplayer roleplaying online game set in a fictional fantasy universe that was a commercial and critical success from the start. While new updates that generate profits for Activision are released every few years, everyone who plays World of Warcraft is required to pay a monthly access subscription fee to maintain entry to the online gaming community. WOW has been recognized and cited by leading gaming journalists as the greatest multiplayer roleplaying game of all time and one of the greatest video games of all time.

2. Candy Crush - Over $20 Billion In Lifetime Revenues

Originally designed for smartphones and Facebook, Candy Crush’s popularity grew exponentially and, for some, unexpectedly. While Candy Crush is a free download, it is one of the five Activision Blizzard most profitable games because the company generates revenue from in-game purchases as well as embedded advertising within the gameplay. You might look away and not pay attention to the ads that play between levels, but the advertising generated more than a1 billion in one year alone.

1. Call of Duty - $31 Billion In Lifetime Revenues

Call of Duty is a long-established and popular first-person shooter series of games. The first game was released in 2003, with a new Call of Duty universe released every year. The Call of Duty franchise is the most profitable of the Activision Blizzard video games, likely due to its realistic depiction of military warfare. The game can be played alone or in a multiplayer mode. Twenty years after its initial release, Call of Duty is still seeing sales jump significantly with the recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2022.

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