Call of Duty raked in over $800 million for Sony in 2021 according to confidential information accidentally shared during the ongoing FTC hearings. The data comes from the same source which revealed the development costs for Horizon Forbidden West and The Last of Us Part II.
While this data is meant to be kept under wraps, it seems that Sony’s lawyers tried to redact the details from the hearing but instead of blacking out the information correctly, they simply scratched it out with a pen. This didn’t hide the information as effectively as they hoped.
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The information reveals that in 2021, 14 million users spent 30% of their time playing Call of Duty. Over 6 million users then spent more than 70% of their time playing Call of Duty. A further 1 million users then spent 100% of their gaming time on Call of Duty. To think, 1 million PlayStation users played Call of Duty and only Call of Duty in 2021.
The document continues to detail the game time recorded on the franchise. In 2021, Call of Duty players spent an average of 116 hours per year playing Call of Duty. Call of Duty players spent more than 70% of their time on Call of Duty and spent an average of 296 hours on the franchise.
When it comes to the financial stats, Sony revealed that over $800 million in revenue was made from Call of Duty sales in 2021. This is only in the United States. Call of Duty made roughly $1.5 billion in 2021 globally so PlayStation contributed to over half of that revenue alone.
Lastly, the papers also reveal that Sony’s marketing deal with Call of Duty is about to end. According to the contract, the last game covered under their blanket marketing agreement is set to launch in 2023. Of course, if Microsoft’s deal goes through, this contract won’t be renewed. Or perhaps given how much money Sony makes Activision, it would be wise for the company to renew it.
Source: TheVerge
