Activision Blizzard profits hit $1.1 billion in 2012

Activision Blizzard today reported full-year and fourth-quarter 2012 results, revealing yearly profit jumped to a record $1.1 billion. Net revenue for the year hit $4.86 billion, also a record for the game publisher. As for the fourth quarter ended December 31, Activision Blizzard posted revenue of $1.77 billion and profit of $354 million.

The company's digital business was a major contributor to its bottom line in 2012, with revenue hitting a record $1.6 billion. This represents 32 percent of all revenue.

Blizzard Entertainment also revealed today that World of Warcraft subscriptions have fallen from 10 million by the end of September to 9.6 million as of December 31. Despite the drop, the game remains the number one subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the company said.

In addition, Activision announced that the Skylanders franchise has now netted more than $1 billion at retail since launch in 2011. This is substantially higher than the $500 million in total revenue the company announced earlier this month, though that figure only factored in sales in the United States.

Blizzard Entertainment also updated sales figures for Diablo III, revealing that the dungeon-crawler has sold-in (i.e. shipped) 12 million copies as of December 31, up from 10 million last year.