Activision raises sales forecast on lockdown demand, new COD release hopes

(Reuters) - Activision Blizzard Inc raised its annual adjusted sales forecast on Thursday, betting on strong sales for its upcoming videogame in the blockbuster "Call of Duty" franchise as

October 29, 2020

(Reuters) – Activision Blizzard Inc <ATVI.O> raised its annual adjusted sales forecast on Thursday, betting on strong sales for its upcoming videogame in the blockbuster “Call of Duty” franchise as demand from stay-at-home gamers continues to rise.

“Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” is set to release on Nov. 13, following the launch of Sony Corp’s <6758.T> PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s <MSFT.O> Xbox Series X. The launch of new consoles has traditionally boosted videogame sales.

Demand from stay-at-home players continues to boost videogame sales, as a surge in COVID-19 cases in several parts of the country has forced people to remain indoors.

Data from research firm NPD showed nearly $34 billion in videogame sales between January and September this year, up 21% compared to the same period a year earlier.

Activision raised its full-year adjusted revenue forecast to $8.10 billion from $7.63 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $7.94 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company also topped third-quarter adjusted sales estimates on strong sales of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” and forecast holiday-quarter adjusted revenue of $2.73 billion, above Wall Street estimates of $2.63 billion.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” has been the top-selling game so far this year across platforms, according to NPD. Average viewers for the game on videogame live-streaming platform Twitch jumped 119% in the third quarter, compared to the second quarter, according to Twitchtracker.com https://twitchtracker.com/games/512710.

The company said its mobile version “Call of Duty: Mobile” is now in its final large-scale testing in China, with over 50 million players already pre-registered for the test.

(Reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)