In their financial results for the first quarter of 2012, Activision took the opportunity to tout some seriously impressive numbers about their most popular series. Not only is Call of Duty still kicking some serious tush online, but Skylanders is growing as well.
“Through March 31 , players have logged more than 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in a statement recorded by VG247. "And for the quarter in North America and Europe, including the accessory packs and figures, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures was the #3 best-selling game overall in dollars across all platforms."
He also added that the Call of Duty series is still played (at least monthly) by 40 million users. On top of that, there are 10 million subscribers to Call of Duty Elite, 2 million of which are premium annual members.
They also added that the kid-phenomenon, Skylanders has continued to grow, and they expect it to soon top Star Wars as the number one toy franchise.
Furthermore, they added that they have bolstered Battle.net, and that World of Warcraft subscriptions have stabilized following the exodus in the wake of the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. They're also expecting another subscription boost when the Mists of Pandaria expansion launches.
“On May 15 Blizzard Entertainment will release the highly anticipated Diablo III and we are proud to report that pre-orders for the game worldwide have set a new record for Blizzard," Kotick said. "For the remainder of 2012 and beyond, our product pipeline includes some of the most innovative games we have ever developed for our established franchises, including Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and all new MMORPG game, as well as Activision Publishing ‘s Skylander ‘s Giants, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and a new universe from Bungie."
Activision may be the evil empire these days, but wow, that's a seriously fantastic lineup of games. From Heart of the Swarm to Skylanders, they've got half a dozen #1 hits and even a few worldwide sensations.
