In Dire Times for Xbox, Why is Blizzard Doing So Well?

The stars aligned for Blizzard to have a good year in 2026, but that's not the whole story It's a dreadful time in the game industry, and a dreadful time to be part of Xbox; employees that survived the 1,600 job cuts across the Xbox group in July will now spend the next year worrying that they'll be among the 1,600 still to come. That includes staff at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard has had a rough five (or more) years anyway, dealing with the fallout from a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the State of California, a not-unconnected exodus of senior staff, and significant wobbles from some of its biggest games, including World of Warcraft and Overwatch. But, in this bleak moment, it seems things are looking up for Blizzard. In an email recently sent to staff by president Johanna Faries (and leaked, surely intentionally, to Windows Central), Faries said that Blizzard ended its 2025-2026 financial year as the top-performing Xbox studio, posted its third-best revenue figure ever, and saw two consecutive years of growth for the first time in nearly a decade. That means Blizzard is doing better as a business than its erstwhile labelmate Activision, whose Call of Duty had a bad yea