Following its $5.9 billion acquisition of Candy Crush creator, King, Activision Blizzard has lifted the lid on its latest quarterly results for the three month period ended September 30, and things at the company are going better than the company expected.
GAAP revenues exceeded expectations, rising from $753 million to $990 million. Non-GAAP revenues are down year-over-year, dropping from $1.17 billion to $1.04 billion--a smaller drop than forecasted, as Activision expected non-GAAP revenues to fall to $930 million.
The company also delivered record quarterly digital revenues, with digital sales generating $687 million in non-GAAP revenue, a year-over-year increase of 38 percent.
Strong software performance
Those digital sales were bolstered by the release of The Taken King, which broke PlayStation records with its day-one download rate and helped attract the highest number of active players in Destiny's history. Since the release of The Taken King, Destiny's community has grown to over 25 million registered players.
According to Activision, daily player engagement in Destiny is also now "well above" three hours per day, and has become the most watched console game on Twitch.
On the mobile front, the release of Hearthstone's second expansion, The Grand Tournament, saw play-time engagement grow by 77 percent year-over-year and helped the card-battler set a new quarterly revenue record.
The continued success of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft also remains a key factor in the company's success, with both of those franchises leading the pack on their respective platforms.
Assuming Call of Duty: Black Ops III and World of Warcaft expansion, Legion, meet their targets, and supporting acts such as Guitar Hero, Skylanders, StarCraft II, and Diablo III continue to perform, Activision expects to end the year with GAAP revenues of $4.53 billion and non-GAAP revenues of $4.65 billion.