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Blizzard’s Hearthstone and Bungie’s Destiny made combined revenues of $450m last year, according to Activision’s latest financial report.
The publisher noted that non-GAAP revenues for the two games stood at $850m, but claimed the difference with that and GAAP revenues “represents the net change in deferrals of revenues of approximately $400m”.
Free-to-play collectable card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft surpassed 25 million registered players since its release in March last year, while Destiny is said to have some 16 million registered users.
Skylanders meanwhile has amassed more than $3bn to date from over 240m toys sold worldwide. World of Warcraft continued to support more than ten million subscribers at the year’s end thanks to the recently release of the Warlords of Draenor expansion.
As of the end of 2014, following the release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, revenues for the blockbuster FPS franchise are said to have exceeded $11bn.
Blizzard’s latest title, free-to-play MOBA Heroes of the Storm has had some nine million players sign up to beta test the game.
Overall, Net GAAP revenue for 2014 stood at $4.4bn, down from the $4.5bn made in 2013. Total net revenue for the fourth quarter however was $1.5bn, surpassing forecasts and the previous year’s earnings during the same period.
In a statement, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said he hoped to expand the publisher’s franchise portfolio to ten, double the five “blockbusters” it had at the beginning of 2014.
“2014 was another successful year as we achieved record results and introduced new franchises with outstanding gameplay, expanded on exciting new business models and continued investing in some of the world’s most important entertainment franchises,” said Kotick.
“We delivered record earnings per share which increased more than 50 per cent from the previous year, double – digit revenue growth, and record high – margin digital revenues that represent an all-time high of 46 per cent of total revenues (all non?GAAP).
