Activision Blizzard has today announced their better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings, with the company bringing in more than $1.5 billion in revenue thanks to a number of high-performing title releases.

While the revenue was high the company did see some lower results in the GAAP and non-GAAP earnings for 2013 calendar year, with Activision Blizzard posting $4.58 billion in GAAP net revenues, down from $4.85 billion in the 2012 calendar year.

The publisher has once again taken the top spot in the console and handheld sector for North America and Europe, with Call of Duty and Skylanders being among the top three best-selling franchises in 2013. Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft also saw a boost of 200k subscribers, putting it back to 7.8 million total.

Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer, Activision Blizzard, said, “2013 was a transformational year for Activision Blizzard and for our industry. Our transaction with Vivendi returned us to independence and eliminated the challenges and constraints of being a controlled company. The continued success of our games delivered better-than-expected financial results, including stronger net revenues and earnings per share, and over $1.26 billion in operating cash flow.”

The Skylander's money-generating train continues according to the new financial results, with the series having generated more than $2 billion in profit to date in North America and Europe combined. Other financial highlights include StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm being the best-selling PC game of the year and Call of Duty: Ghosts being the top-selling title in both units and dollars in aggregate across all platforms in the U.S. and Europe combined.

Looking to the future, the company expects Bungie's upcoming first-person action game, Destiny, to be the publisher's "next billion dollar franchise." No pressure there. Blizzard's free-to-play titles Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and to-be-released MOBA title Heroes of the Storm are also expected to help bolster the company's 2014 pipeline, alongside Activision Publishing's Call of Duty Online.

For Blizzard Entertainment, the company is expecting to release the Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo 3 come March 25th, though interestingly Kotick did mention that the developer also has "another major new
release" planned, though this may just be in reference to the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor.

A company meeting is expected shortly, and we should know more on the financial report soon.