Destiny 2 Pre-orders Exceed Destiny 1's; Overwatch And Hearthstone Bring Blizzard A Big Quarter

Activision Blizzard has reported its earnings for the second quarter of 2017, which ended on June 30, 2017. Although Activision saw a slight decline in monthly active users to 47 million, Blizzard was up to a record 46 million, a 38% increase over last year.

Blizzard attributed this to Overwatch and Hearthstone. Overwatch set a new record for monthly active users, which is impressive given that it's now a year old. The press release notes that the Uprising event, which included a PvE mode (the game is otherwise PvP only), enjoyed "record play time." Hearthstone also reached a new record for MAUs, thanks to the release of expansion Journey to Un'Goro. World of Warcraft subscriber figures were not shared, as per usual, but "time spent" in the game was up compared with the second quarter of last year. The most recent expansion, Legion, is also "perform[ing] ahead of the prior expansion," 2014's Warlords of Draenor.

With the release of Destiny 2 approaching, Activision noted that the recent console beta attracted more players than Destiny 1's beta. Additionally, pre-orders for the sequel have eclipsed those of the first game, although no specific figures or further comparisons were offered. Call of Duty: WWII pre-orders are similarly described as "strong."

During the quarter, Activision made the uncommon move of releasing new content for a previous year's Call of Duty game with Black Ops III's Zombies Chronicles. As you'd expect, this led to an increase in players compared to the prior quarter (but apparently not the same period in 2016). Activision also noted that Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy performed well, becoming the top-selling console game in the world in June despite being available for only two days.

Overall, Activision Blizzard's net revenue for the quarter was $1.63 billion, a slight increase over the $1.57 billion generated during the same period last year. Perhaps more notably, $1.31 billion of that came in the form of digital net revenue, a 15% increase year-over-year.

The publisher will host a conference call with investors and analysts this afternoon. We'll report back with anything interesting it has to share.