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In fairness, the only real moneymakers from that list are Overwatch and Hearthstone. We could maybe add WoW to that list due to the die hard players still paying a subscription (if that's still a thing?) but Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft and basically hibernating IPs at this point. None of those hibernating IPs have seen any major movement or releases in _many_ years. Starcraft is still viable as it's considered to be a mainstay of completive RTS (and therefore great for branding of Blizzard in general) but I don't think it's earning them buckets of money.

So we're down to 2 properties making the majority of earnings, both on Free to Play but not Pay to Win models. That model has a very distinct shelf life of, I'd say, 5 years before you need to either release a sequel or change it up with a new IP.



According to ACTI, WoW is making more money than ever, largely thanks to the microtransactions they added. Their subscription numbers haven’t maxed out again, but their revenue has.

And isn’t that something.


I haven't played WoW in 10 years, but I know a number of people who still love and prefer the latest releases. From what I hear, there is still usually a lag when content patches stop for a given expansion, but most of the real complaints I hear about the game are from people who were on their way out of love for it anyway, whether they realized it or not. I've admittedly been tempted a number of times to play around with it, but I know it's akin to just having a beer after becoming an alcoholic and then quitting. Not a great idea.


The subscription is still a thing. I briefly looked into it early into lockdown when I was completely off work for a month and a half: they wanted 15 bucks a month, and were still charging $50 for an expansion that was about to be irrelevant. I don't know how/if they're drawing in any new or even returning players at that steep a buy-in.


WoW broke a billion dollars in bookings for 2020 according to the most recent earnings call. It's currently Blizzard's highest revenue game, and has a full size team working on making expansions for it.


So that's Blizzard. ACTIVISION on the other hand? (the other half of the same parent company): straight up killing it.




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