Sony accidentally disclosed data on players and revenues from Call of Duty
By ForGeeks Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) inadvertently revealed details about the PlayStation business. In addition to exposing the scale of budgets for modern blockbusters like The Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West, poorly redacted documents released as part of Microsoft’s lawsuit against the FTC shed light on the importance of Activision’s Call of Duty business to Sony.
One of the documents provided by SIE head Jim Ryan to the FTC, which is trying to block Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, highlights the level of involvement Call of Duty players have on PlayStation consoles. It says the following:
In 2021, more than [14?]million users (by device) spent 30 percent or more of their time playing Call of Duty, more than 6 million users spent more than 70 percent of their time playing Call of Duty, and about 1 million users spent 100 percent of their gaming time playing Call of Duty.
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In 2021, Call of Duty players spent an average of [116?] hours per year playing Call of Duty. Call of Duty players who spent more than 70% of their time playing Call of Duty spent an average of 296 hours on the franchise.
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It was recently confirmed that Call of Duty software sales on PlayStation consoles totaled more than $1 billion in 2021. According to The Verge, an edited Sony document suggests that that year’s revenue from Call of Duty games for the PlayStation was $800 million in the U.S. alone — and seemingly $1.5 billion worldwide.
This figure rises significantly when you also consider the average annual spending by Call of Duty players on PlayStation hardware, accessories, subscriptions and services. The Verge claims that the redacted figure is $15.9 billion a year (or perhaps $13.9 billion).
