Activision Blizzard released its Q1 earnings details and there have been some notable drops. though there was a small uptick in monthly active users (MAUs) from 371 million in Q4 2021 to 372 million. Blizzard itself,. however, is still losing MAUs, dropping from 24 MAUs in Q4 2021 to 22 MAUs in Q1 2022.
From the first quarter of this year, Activision Blizzard's net revenue was $1.77 billion, down from Q1 2021, where that figure was $2.28 billion. Earnings per diluted share of the company stock fell to $0.64, down from $0.98 cents a year ago. Another drop came in operating cash flow. This year’s first quarter total was $642 million, while the first quarter of 2021 saw operating cash flow of $844 million.
Other notable details include the decline year over year when it comes to "lower results for Call of Duty and product cycle timing at Blizzard, offsetting robust growth at King. The company incurred an increase in legal and other professional fees, primarily driven by costs associated with our proposed transaction with Microsoft. We continue to increase investment in our development resources in order to meet the demand from our players, and grew our developer headcount by several hundred people in the first quarter.”
When it comes to what they refer to as in-game net bookings, microtransactions, DLC, and other in-game spending, this was 1.01 billion dollars as compared to last year's first quarter 1.34 billion dollars. Net bookings overall, which means products and services including games, fell from $2.07 billion last year to $1.48 billion.
However, the press release with the report does break down some hopeful markers that Activision Blizzard looks toward for some turnaround. The second quarter is, "the start of a period of planned substantial releases across Blizzard's portfolio”, This includes today's announcement of the Diablo Immortal release on June 2nd on mobile and PC, and the announcement that tomorrow begins the public open beta for OverWatch 2 PVP. Additionally, Diablo 4 is listed as progressing well in development, and they also point to expansion announcements and release, like the newest Hearthstone expansion, Voyage to the Sunken City, and the new World of Warcraft: Dragonflight expansion, As well as the upcoming Warcraft mobile announcement.
Due to the proposed Microsoft acquisition, Activision Blizzard did not hold an earnings call or a presentation, limiting info to a press release. You can see more over at the Activision Blizzard investor site.
