Activision Blizzard reports that its sales from games on PC have surprisingly continued to surpass its sales for consoles in a nearly year-long trend. Sales revenue for games has historically seen greater numbers on consoles but, at least for Activision Blizzard, that trend seems to be changing as the publisher’s latest earning report shows PC maintaining a lead that began in 2022. For the third quarter in a row, sales of PC games have exceeded those for consoles. The latest revenue tally is $666 million for PC versus $639 million for consoles.
Prior to the current 9-month run, the gap between the two had already shrunk to around $100 million earlier in 2022 where PC sales could already be seen gaining traction over the previous lead held by consoles. PC Gamer reports that this change is the first consistent sales revenue shift in roughly two decades of publicly reported sales figures.
From PC Gamer:
“This is a notable change: As far back as far as I can look at Activision’s publicly available financial reports(opens in new tab), console has always been king. This was the case in the early 2000s at the peak of Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero, in the 2010s when Call of Duty was on the rise, and even after Activision bought Blizzard in 2008 (WoW subscriptions were still big, but not Call of Duty big).”
It remains to be seen if this trend will continue or if console sales will retake the lead. Microsoft is no doubt keeping a keen eye on the company as it continues to pursue its $69 billion acquisition plan which has hit its share of roadblocks across the globe. Meanwhile, Blizzard is preparing its Diablo IV Server Slam event that runs from May 12-14, during which players will have one last chance to play the beta version of the upcoming game before its official release on June 6. Sales for Diablo IV could easily affect this trend, one way or another it will be interesting to see what Activision Blizzard reports in its next financial statement.