Posted in: Games, Games Finance, Video Games | Tagged: activision, activision blizzard, Bungie, Destiny, destiny 2, Q3 results
Activision Claims Destiny 2 Is The Biggest Selling Game Of The Year, So Far
Activision Blizzard's third quarterly report has hit us and the numbers look pretty darn good for the company despite the recent backlash against the publisher's use of micro-transactions. The company reports that Destiny 2, its biggest release so far this year, has been the best selling console game in the U.S. so far in 2017. Which indicates we've kicked Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Wildlands out of the top spot. Finally.
The Destiny sequel is also on PC for the first time ever through Blizzard's battle.net shop, which will increases those sales numbers a decent bit. The PC sales are not taken into account for this quarter or the game's console sales numbers since the PC release hit after the end of Activision's third quarter. So the numbers reflected in Activision's investor report just reflect tbe PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales. So far, Destiny 2 has sold better than pretty much any of its competition. Which isn't much of a surprise. However, due to the timing of the report, we might see that change in the fourth quarter what with the releases of Call of Duty: WWII and Assassin's Creed Origins which are two of the other big name releases this fall.
Also of note is that Destiny 2 on consoles has a 50% digital sell-through, with Activision stating that half the copies of the game have been sold through digital storefronts. Destiny 2, released in September, received critical acclaim for its improvements over the initial game in the series. Not that being better than the original Destiny was going to be too hard. Sure, The Taken King and Rise of Iron made Destiny a powerhouse title, but the game at launch was somewhat of a disappointment for various reasons. But mostly because of that whole "lack of a plot" thing.
It'll be interesting to see, come Activision's end of year results, which of their two blockbuster shooters takes home the prize for most units sold. Call of Duty is a franchise with an absurdly long history and is something of a household name, while Destiny has the kind of rabid fanbase that only a newer series can boast. Should make for some interesting reading amid the dry investor reports that'll hit in late January.