Activision Blizzard Earnings Beat Estimates in Q4

The video game developer hit 389 million monthly active users and $2.3 billion in revenue to conclude 2022.

Activision Blizzard‘s Q4 earnings showed that the company ended 2022 stronger than expected — a good sign for its pending $69 million merger deal with Microsoft.

The video game developer shared its current financial forecast on Monday in its fourth-quarter earnings report. Activision reported bringing in $403 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2022, with 389 million monthly active users. The company’s overall revenue in Q4 was $2.3 billion, up roughly $100 million compared to Q4 of 2021.

Activision shares are up as much as 5% as of Tuesday following its positive financial update.

“We ended 2022 with record quarterly net bookings as we delivered on our mission to bring epic joy to players. I’m grateful to our talented and hardworking teams for their many successes entertaining our hundreds of millions of players around the world,” Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a news release. “We look forward to a historic year, as we work toward merging with Microsoft. This merger will enable us to better serve our players, create greater opportunities for our employees, and allow us to succeed in an increasingly competitive global gaming industry. “

High-profile releases, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, propelled Activision’s net bookings in Q4 to $3.57 billion, which is up from $2.49 billion in Q4 of 2021.

More high-level takeaways from the Activision Blizzard earnings report:

Activision spent $27 million in expenses related to sunsetting its partnership with Chinese video game publisher NetEase.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision is expected to be completed by June 30, 2023, even though regulators haven’t approved the merger deal yet. Both parties are cooperating with regulators to push the acquisition through this year.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II clocked its highest opening-quarter sales in franchise history. The popular game generated $1 billion in sales in its first 10 days.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, a free-to-play version of COD, attracted 25 million players in its first week.
Activision will pay $35 million to settle an investigation by the SEC over its workplace complaint and whistleblower policies.

The Activision Blizzard earnings may look strong, but the company is still fighting multiple legal battles concerning its allegedly unhealthy workplace culture. Since settling an $18 million lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2021, Activision faced a similar suit filed by the California Civil Rights Department in December concerning sexual harassment and pay discrimination at the gaming giant.