The number of people playing Activision Blizzard games each month has dropped back down to levels previously seen last summer, before a brief boost bestowed by big releases such as Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty in the back half of last year.
Monthly active users for Activision games – primarily its Call of Duty series – fell to 98 million as of the 31st March, down from 111 million at the end of December 2022.
It’s a figure roughly equal to that seen at the end of September last year, before the arrival of Modern Warfare 2 and the big 2.0 relaunch of live service Warzone in November.
Modern Warfare 2 has been trumpeted as a huge success for Activision – its most lucrative COD launch ever! – though the language used to describe Warzone 2.0 has been more cautious. Back in February, Activision stated that the twin launches had sparked a “strong year-over-year increase in franchise reach”, but admitted that growth had “moderated following the launch”.