Snapshot of key mobile game company financials in 2017
Given the size of the mobile games industry, it's no surprise that many companies have sufficient scale and/or growth to be able to float themselves on various stock markets around the world.
And that means every three months, we get a deluge of financial information concerning their sales over the previous quarter.
It's a lot of information and sometimes difficult to place into context, so we've come up with this handy list format, which highlights the performance of key players in the mobile games space during the past quarter.
Companies on this list are ranked in terms of quarterly mobile revenues, starting with the largest.
- King (Activision Blizzard) - $436 million
- GungHo Online - $220 million
- Zynga - $151 million
- EA Mobile - $148 million
- Com2uS - $118 million
- Nexon - $105 million
- Glu Mobile - $46 million
#1: King
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King »“Our record performance in 2016 further strengthened our position as the world’s leading standalone interactive entertainment company.
"For the quarter and the year, we delivered our highest revenues, non-GAAP redefined
operating margins and earnings per share, well surpassing our own expectations," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
Last quarter King revenue: $436 million (FY16 Q4)
Change quarter-on-quarter: -5%
Change year-on-year: -14%
Last year King revenue: $1.6 billion (FY16)
Change year-on-year: -6%
Last year King net income: $537 million (FY16)
Change year-on-year: -40%
Last quarter King revenue as % of Activision Blizzard total sales: 28%
Current cash and equivalent (Activision Blizzard): $3.2 billion
Market cap: $33.5 billion (up 49% YoY)
Stock exchange ticker: NASDAQ: ATVI
Key metrics during period:
- King MAUs were 355 million, down 10% QoQ
- King had two of the top 10 highest-grossing titles in the US mobile app stores for the thirteenth quarter in a row
[Last updated: 23 February 2017]
#2: GungHo Online Entertainment
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GungHo Online Entertainment »The company noted "net sales of our group declined from the previous year because sales of our main game Puzzle & Dragons dropped".
Last quarter revenues: $220 million (FY16 Q4)
Change quarter-on-quarter: -29%
Last quarter operating profit: $85 million
Change quarter-on-quarter: -30%
Last year revenues: $1.0 billion (FY16)
Change year-on-year: -27%
Last year operating profit: $410 million (FY16)
Change year-on-year: -36%
Market cap: $2.1 billion (-5% YoY)
Stock exchange ticker: TYO:3765
Key metrics during period:
- Puzzle & Dragons accounted for 85% of sales during 2016, down from 89% in 2015.
- Disney Magic Kingdoms has been downloaded 1 million times in Japan.
[Last updated: 8 February 2017]
#3: Zynga
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Zynga »"We had a strong Q4 and made significant progress this year in our turnaround and we're encouraged by the fundamentals of our business as we head into 2017.
"We're pleased with the performance of our live services and the quality of our new releases as we improved profitability and continued to sharpen our operating model," said Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga.
Last quarter revenues: $191 million (FY16 Q4)
Change quarter-on-quarter: +4%
Change year-on-year: +3%
Last quarter mobile revenues: $148 million (FY16 Q4)
Last quarter loss: $35 million
Change quarter-on-quarter: +$7 million
Change year-on-year: +$12 million
Last year revenues: $741 million (FY16)
Change year-on-year: -3%
Last quarter mobile revenues as % of total sales: 81%
Current cash and equivalent: $850 million
Market cap: $2.2 billion (+12% YoY)
Stock exchange ticker: NASDAQ:ZNGA
Key metrics during period:
- DAUs static at 18 million.
- MAUs down 5% to 63 million.
- Payer conversion rate was 1.2% compared to 1.3% in Q3.
- Monthly unique payers was 1.2 million.
- Bookings per DAU were $0.12.
- Advertising revenue for FY16 was $195 million.
[Last updated: 10 February 2017]
#4: EA Mobile
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EA Mobile »"We are building our mobile games today to have a long life with players through outstanding live services and dynamic content updates.
"For example, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes added ship battles and Rogue One content in Q3, driving average gameplay time per player to an unprecedented total of 155 minutes per day," said CEO Andrew Wilson.
Last quarter GAAP revenues: $148 million (FY17 Q3)
Change quarter-on-quarter: -1%
Change year-on-year: +5%
Last quarter profit: n/a (EA doesn't break out EA Mobile's profit)
Last year revenues: $504 million (FY15)
Change year-on-year: +16%
Last quarter mobile revenues as % of EA total sales: 13%
Current cash and equivalents (EA): $2.5 billion
Quarterly net operating cash flow: $1.1 billion
Stock exchange ticker: NASDAQ: EA
Market cap: $24.6 billion (+35% YoY)
Best performing mobile titles:
- Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
- Madden NFL Mobile
- SimCity BuildIt
- The Sims FreePlay
- NBA Live Mobile
- FIFA Mobile
[Last updated: 2 February 2017]
#5: Com2uS
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Com2uS »Com2us plans to continue to grow as a global leading company by building on the on-going success of its hit mobile games with aggressive global marketing investments.
Last quarter revenues: $118 million (Q4 FY16)
Change year-on-year: +15%
Annual sales (2016): $450 million
Change year-on-year: +17%
Market cap: $1.3 billion (-10% YoY)
Stock exchange ticker: KOSDAQ:078340
Key metrics during period:
- Key title: Summoners War, which has generated more than $500 million
- Sales outside of Korea accounted for 87% of 2016 revenue
[Last updated: 20 February 2017]
#6: Nexon
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Nexon »“We continue to see strong performance across our portfolio of games, including storied hits like Dungeon&Fighter in China, as well as titles like ... HIT in Taiwan and Thailand. Together, their performance helped drive fourth quarter revenue that was above expectations," commented CEO Owen Mahoney.
Last quarter mobile revenues: $105 million (¥11.9b), FY16 Q4
Change quarter-on-quarter: 22%
Change year-on-year: -9%
Mobile revenues as percent of Nexon total revenues: 28% for Q4, 24% for FY16
Annual mobile sales (2016): $280 million (¥43b)
Change year-on-year: -4 percent
Current cash and equivalent: $1.3 billion
Market cap: $7.5 billion (-16% YoY)
Stock exchange ticker: TYO:3659
Key metrics during period:
- Korea generated 50% of mobile sales in FY16.
- Japan generated 29% of mobile sales in FY16.
- Key mobile releases for 2017 include Durango, Dynasty Warriors Unleashed and Dark Avenger 3.
[Last updated: 17 February 2017]
#7: Glu Mobile
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Glu Mobile »"We significantly outperformed our bookings guidance, primarily due to better than anticipated performance from Crowdstar and our evergreen titles, as well as Apple reporting 14 weeks of revenue in the quarter rather than its book of 13," commented CEO Nick Earl.
Last quarter GAAP revenues: $46 million (FY16 Q4)
Change quarter-on-quarter: -10%
Last quarter GAAP loss: $17 million
Last year revenues: $201 million (FY16)
Change year-on-year: -20%
Current cash and equivalent: $102 million (-$45 million QoQ)
Market cap: $283 million (-37% YoY)
Stock exchange ticker: NASDAQ: GLUU
Key metrics during period:
- Top game was Cooking Dash 2015, generating $33.5 million
- Second was Kim Kardashian: Hollywood on $33.1 million
- Third was Tap Sports Baseball 2016 on $28.2 million
- The two games from the Crowdstar deal - Covet Fashion and Design Home - generated $8 million and $4 million of bookings in the period 2 November to 31 December 2016.
- Glu predicted FY17 bookings in the range $215 million to $225 million, and a "modest" increase in losses.
- It expects to end 2017 with at least $50 million of cash and equivalents
[Last updated: 16 February 2017]
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