January 30th, 2023, Rishad Dsouza
It’s been just over a year since news first broke of Microsoft’s plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in one of the biggest deals in the history of the video gaming industry. A lot of new developments have transpired since, but the deal is still being scrutinised by regulators across the world.
The acquisition was initiated with an intention to boost Xbox’s Game Pass offerings with Activision Blizzard titles, Call of Duty being among the most prominent of them. A survey we’d conducted at the time revealed that CoD was, indeed, the most likely of all Activision-Blizzard titles to draw people to a Game Pass subscription.
It stands to reason then that CoD players may have been playing close attention to developments. In this piece we examine the perceived tone of coverage and commentary around the Xbox brand among CoD players through the Buzz score.
YouGov BrandIndex Buzz score is the difference between the percentage of respondents hearing positive things (from friends, family, or the media) and the percentage hearing negative things about a franchise in the previous two weeks.
The narrative about Xbox among CoD players has been largely positive since January 18, our data indicates. The average Buzz score for Xbox among this audience a year out from January 18 has risen to 29.1 from 18.8 in the preceding period.
Looking at an over-time analysis, Xbox’s Buzz score among CoD players has risen steadily from 18.0 on January 18, 2022 to 29.5 as of January 17 this year. The data based on a 52-week moving average to ensure a robust sample size of CoD players.
Even Impression scores have risen sharply from 29.1 to 43.7 on January 17 this year. The Impression metric is a net score based on the share of consumers who have a positive impression about a brand subtracted by the share of those who have a negative impression of the brand.
While the industry ramifications of Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal continue to be investigated by regulators worldwide, it is interesting to note that CoD gamers themselves seem to be reacting to the developments positively.
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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Xbox’s Buzz score is based on the questions: “overall, of which of the following brands do you have a positive impression?” and “Now, of which of the following brands do you have a negative impression?” and delivered as an OR net score between –100 and + 100. The figures are based on a 52-week moving average between January 1, 2022 and January 17, 2023. The data is based on an average sample size of 158 CoD players. Learn more about BrandIndex.
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