With over 9.5 million registered users playing an average of three hours per day, Destiny led the charge in Activision's quarterly earnings report. Also strong contributors to the profit increase are the Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition for consoles and Blizzard's World of Warcraft.
Digital sales accounted for nearly three-fourths of Activision's sales and strong increased in World of Warcraft subscriptions ahead of the Warlords of Draenor expansion and the D3 console version all contributed to Activision's strongest earnings quarter this year.
"Our record third-quarter results were driven by Destiny, the biggest new videogame franchise launch of all time, as well as strong sales from Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which now has over 20 million registered players1, and World of Warcraft, which saw a quarterly increase in subscribers to 7.41 million in anticipation of the upcoming Warlords of Draenor release," said Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard. "We are raising our full-year non-GAAP outlook and we expect to deliver double-digit non-GAAP revenue growth year-over-year and record non-GAAP earnings per share." He continued, "In addition to new content releases of Skylanders Trap Team and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, next week Blizzard Entertainment plans to launch World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. Today, we have some of the most important franchises in entertainment and we expect to continue growing our product portfolio in 2015 with two additional franchises -- Call of Duty Online, which we expect will enter an unlimited beta test, including virtual item sales, in China during the first quarter, and Blizzard Entertainment's Heroes of the Storm. Looking ahead, we have more opportunities than ever before to fuel our growth by creating great content using new platforms and business models while also expanding into new geographies. We are embracing all of these growth opportunities with the same commitment to excellence that we have demonstrated over the past 23 years."
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