Activision loses 40% players in 1.5 years – But Call of Duty has the same plan as 2019 and it changed everything

Das aktuelle Call of Duty verkauft sich mies, nun ist es wochenlang kostenlos – So könnt ihr spielen

Every three months, the company behind Call of Duty, Activision-Blizzard, publishes a report with financial key figures and the current number of players. The Activision division falls below the mark of 100 million monthly active players for the first time in over 2.5 years. But Call of Duty is pursuing the same plan as in 2019, which caused a huge boom at the time.

What’s going on at Activision? Activision and Blizzard have been collaborating under the Activision-Blizzard umbrella for over 14 years. The group is currently in the middle of a takeover by Microsoft.

Now one of the last quarterly reports has been published as an independent company and it turns out: “Call of Duty” publisher Activision has gotten a little under the wheels (via businesswire.com)

For the first time since 2019, Activision falls below the threshold of 100 million players (MAUs – Monthly Active Users) in the second quarter of 2022. Since peaking in Q1 2021, it has even lost 40% of its monthly active players.

What are MAUs? These are the monthly active users who log into an Activision game. It is an average of several months. Activision counts users multiple times if they log in to different platforms with the same account. At Blizzard, such users only count once.

Since Activision basically consists entirely of Call of Duty and otherwise has rather small titles in its portfolio, this also means a sharp drop in the numbers for CoD.

In order to fight the trend, old successes are used as a guide – and the same plan that caused a real hype in 2019/2020. MeinMMO explains the success strategy to you.

By the way, Warzone is currently trying to zombie content, there is a trailer here:

CoD Warzone: Trailer for zombie mode “Rebirth of the Dead”

CoD repeats history

What was the plan for 2019? Interest in Call of Duty was at its lowest in 2019. Black Ops 4, the CoD of 2018, did not achieve the desired success and MAUs dropped to 36 million.

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CoD was considered a problem franchise at the time. At the time, hardly anyone knew what was to come. Because CoD had planned three hits that should all hit:

Activision player numbers went through the roof. In the fourth quarter of 2019, 128 million MAUs were suddenly reached. This value was only topped in the first quarter of 2021 – the preliminary peak was reached with 150 million MAUs.

Why isn’t it going so well at the moment? It’s been going downhill since the record. Even today you are still living from the 2019/2020 run, but you could not keep the very high level. The latest report shows 94 million MAUs, a good 40% fewer than 1.5 years ago.

This is due to some issues in the current games that are now depressing player counts:

  • Call of Duty: Vanguard – The premium title of 2021 was not well received. The interest in the World War II setting was misjudged, and there were too few innovations.
  • Call of Duty: Warzone – The Battle Royale was only planned for one year. One did not count on the great success and with this mistake one has to work to this day.
  • Call of Duty: Mobile – Delivers stable figures, but cannot compensate for the failures of the other areas. Should be able to do more in a growing market like mobile gaming.

Since the three major products in the portfolio are weakening, the number of players is also suffering. But it is far from the case that Call of Duty can be called a crisis.

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Compared to the period before the big 2019 plan, you still have three times as many players. The current report also provides a good comparison value: The Blizzard division, with major titles such as Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch, will have 27 million MAUs in the second quarter of 2022.

What is the 2022 plan? Now one would like to repeat the success story that led to a big boom in 2019. In contrast to 2019, however, you are not just sitting on a flagging premium title that is financed through DLCs and loot boxes.

In recent years, the company has matured into a service game machine, has hired a lot of new people and wants to initiate the next hype with the same plan as in 2019:

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – The next premium title is scheduled for release on October 28th and is the direct sequel to the most successful premium CoD to date (CoD MW 2019).
  • Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 – The sequel to the free-to-play battle royale doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s slated for release later this year.
  • Call of Duty: Mobile Warzone – The Battle Royale comes to smartphones as an independent title. There is no release date yet.

As in 2019, you have a premium CoD with “Modern Warfare” in the title, a new Warzone game and a mobile offshoot in the pipeline.

Can the plan work? The Call of Duty brand continues to have a lot of appeal and potential. At the moment it is more likely that CoD will be successful with its plans. However, there are certain risks.

CoD MW2 and Warzone 2.0 share the technical basis. If there are problems with the release of CoD MW2, Warzone will also suffer or the release will be postponed.

Warzone 2.0 is also under immense pressure. It “must” be better than Warzone 1, because there will be critical comparisons from day one.

CoD MW2 and Warzone 2.0 both have a good chance of hype, the starting position is good, people are eagerly awaiting both titles. On PC and console, the quality of the delivered products matters more than ever.

CoD Warzone 2 is still coming in 2022 – all information about the release, map and leaks

Warzone-Mobile should provide new momentum and players on the mobile market. There is also tremendous potential for new players here, especially in markets where players are more likely to use their smartphones to gamble and expensive computers and consoles are less common.

Whether the recipe for success from 2019 will work remains to be seen. In any case, the facts show that Call of Duty has a strict plan – even if the current weakness in player numbers is due to homegrown problems.

If Activision and Call of Duty use the experience of the last few years, then the next record numbers will probably be in 2023: if everything goes smoothly.

Give us your opinion on the topic – how do you assess the situation of Call of Duty? Write us a comment.

If you’d rather read about what Sony has to say on the subject, have a look here: PS5: Sony comments on Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard – “Call of Duty has no competition, never will”

Reference-mein-mmo.de