Overwatch Players Top 15 Million as Activision Enjoys Record Quarter

Activision Blizzard today announced the results of its fiscal second quarter, which ended on June 30, 2016, and it was a very positive period for the company.

GAAP net revenue was a record $1.57 billion--a sizable, 50 percent increase over the same period in 2015 (when revenue was $1.04 billion). The bulk of that came from its digital business, which produced a quarterly record of $1.14 billion, just over last year's second-quarter mark.

Across all of its labels, Activision Blizzard had a whopping 491 million monthly active users during the quarter. That's thanks in large part to its acquisition of Candy Crush studio King, which represented 409 million of those users (which was actually a decline).

33 million of those were from Blizzard's games, marking its biggest quarter ever. That figure is up 13 percent year-over-year and is attributed to the launch of Overwatch and a record quarter for Hearthstone. Even World of Warcraft enjoyed a bump, seeing growth over this year's first quarter and the second quarter last year. We did not, however, get an update on how many subscribers it currently has.

Overwatch has now attracted more than 15 million players globally. Keep in mind that figure doesn't represent an exact sales figure--Activision's press release notes this also includes things like players in internet game rooms and multiple players in the same house. It did, however, break Diablo III's record for the fastest-selling PC game ever in China.

Activision also revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the best-selling game on current-gen platforms.