2019 - $649 million
2020 - $800 million
2021 - $880 million
So let’s think about this, because to the average kid these seem like astronomical numbers and they think “hurrr why they rob me wif monetizashun”…
So by the table OW did not make even those numbers, but below them. Let’s say they made 90%… sounds great eh? Look at this table:
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ATVI/activision-blizzard/financial-statements
Now look particularly at the line marked “EBIT” - that is net income after [EDIT: before] taxes and interest. For 2021 its only 3.2 Billion. Sounds like a lot, right? Bear in mind less than 10% of that is Overwatch - it might not even be 5% in reality. But let’s call it 10%.
If OW made less than 10%, then it made less than 320 million. Now to the average person this sounds like a lot, but for a company at this scale its actually not.
The writer clearly doesn’t understand how to read the financial statements and misreported. To the untrained ear they think “wow those greedy you-know-whats” but in the world they are in, for other companies like Riot, they are doing terribly financially.
I need to ask my wife who has a masters in accounting to help me deduce the likely number after EPS, I don’t believe EBIT includes that, which is another payout from that remaining number.