Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo IV is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever in a new press release regarding its second quarter 2023 financial results. According to a list of highlights, Blizzard segment revenue grew over 160% year-over-year and operating income more than tripled year-over-year thanks in large part to Diablo IV, with the new action RPG having attracted over 10 million players thus far, culminating in a playtime of over 700 million hours since its launch in early June. The news comes shortly after Blizzard released a controversial update for Diablo IV that prompted much of the community to go into meltdown ahead of Season of the Malignant, the changes of which will seemingly be explained in an upcoming campfire chat.
Each of our business units grew net bookings year-over-year in the second quarter. Blizzard delivered its first $1 billion net bookings quarter following the record-setting launch of Diablo IV, Blizzard’s fastest-selling title to date. Player investment in live operations content drove 17% year-over-year net bookings growth for Activision and another quarterly net bookings record at King. Activision Blizzard in-game net bookings grew 30% year-over-year in the second quarter, and represent over 60% of total net bookings over the last 12 months. Net bookings on the mobile platform grew 4% year-over-year, and represent approximately 40% of total net bookings over the last 12 months.
Blizzard Q2 2023 Financial Results Highlights
- In the second quarter, Blizzard segment revenue grew over 160% year-over-year and operating income more than tripled year-over-year, each setting new quarterly records, driven by the launch of Diablo IV.
- As of the end of the second quarter, Diablo IV had sold-through more units than any other Blizzard title at an equivalent stage of release. Over 10 million players experienced Diablo IV in June, playing for over 700 million hours, and retention trends for the title are particularly strong.
- The launch of Diablo IV marks the start of a live service plan designed to deeply engage the Diablo community and create opportunities for continued player investment. July 20 sees the release of Diablo IV’s first quarterly season, Season of the Malignant, bringing new themes, content, and fresh gameplay to the community. Blizzard’s teams are also making strong progress on expansions that will deliver major new features and continue the game’s acclaimed narrative for many years to come.
- Following the launch of Diablo IV, Blizzard also saw increased engagement in Diablo Immortal, with June monthly net bookings for the mobile and PC title reaching the highest level since January. Elsewhere on mobile, Warcraft: Arclight Rumble, an action strategy game internally developed at Blizzard, continues to progress through testing ahead of its regional soft launch.
- Blizzard continued to engage the Overwatch and Warcraft communities with live operations in the second quarter. While engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 declined sequentially in the quarter, the Overwatch team is looking forward to the August 10 release of Overwatch 2: Invasion. This will be the largest seasonal update yet, planned to include new PVE Story Missions, a new game mode, and a new hero progression system as well as an additional hero.
- The World of Warcraft team is delivering more content faster than ever before following the November release of the Dragonflight expansion for the Modern game, and subscriber retention in the West remains higher than at the equivalent stage of recent Modern expansions.