Call of Duty breaks video game records
December 8, 2020
By Chris Forrester
The Activision-owned Call of Duty (COD) video game franchise has broken all records. Moreover, it looks like its revenue stream will go even higher.
Activision says COD has set a new record with over $3 billion of net bookings over the last 12 months – that’s around an 80 per cent net booking increase in the year to date with 200 million unique players on the franchise (including mobile) and 85 million players on COD Warzone (the free to play battle royale).
In a note to clients investment bank Exane/BNPP said that COD will likely be the largest franchise worldwide this year in terms of net booking ahead of PUBG (South Korea’s PlayerUnknown’s Battleground) which benefitted from the solid performance of PUBG Mobile (Game for Peace) in China.
“We see further upside for COD franchise in the mid-term driven by improved monetisation on Warzone/COD premium and COD mobile in China. Looking at 2021, we currently assume some normalisation with COD franchise net booking down 10 per cent YoY,” added the bank.