The machine behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft revealed their financial report today that blew even their socks off. Activision/Blizzard had $981 million in revenue for the first quarter of this year ending March 31. That’s a substantial increase from the company’s projected $860 million (which happens to be the revenue rival EA earned in its last quarter).

Activision/Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick had this to say:

Our better-than-expected first quarter results were driven by strong global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, despite challenging economic times.

Kotick claims Activision as the #1 third-party console and handheld third-party publisher in North America and as the top third-party for the Wii worldwide.

Highlights for Activision Blizzard‘s quarter were Wrath of the Lich King which maintained the top spot on the PC charts according to NPD and Guitar Hero’s sales rising by 84% year over year in Europe according to Charttrack and Gfk.

Activision is bullish on its next quarter, which will see the release of Transformers and Ice Age games along with Prototype, the already-released Wolverine game and new Guitar Hero titles (Smash Hits and Modern Hits, for consoles and DS, respectively.)

Source: Kotaku