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Gravity and Puzzle & Dragons spur on GungHo sales to $318m in Q1 2019

Developer Gravity riding high on Ragnarok M success

Gravity and Puzzle & Dragons spur on GungHo sales to $318m in Q1 2019

Net sales at resurgent publisher GungHo increased once again by 60.2 per cent to ¥35 billion ($319m) in Q1 2019.

Operating income also grew 13 per cent per cent to ¥13bn ($118m). The operating income margin was 37.1 per cent, compared to 29.5 per cent a year ago and 30.7 per cent in the last quarter.

Puzzle & Dragons continues to ride high after the number of monthly active users increased significantly in October and November last year. These numbers have steadily declined since but remain higher than during any period in 2018.

GungHo said various initiatives such as events and IP collaborations have helped spur on growth in MAUs. Seventh-anniversary celebrations have also helped keep those numbers steady.

Number of Puzzle & Dragons monthly active users by month

As GungHo moves forward it has eight new projects in the pipeline for smartphones and console. One of those titles is multiplayer action game Ninjala, set for release on Nintendo Switch in spring.

Gravity on the up

Puzzle & Dragons isn’t the only key driver of GungHo’s business. South Korean developer Gravity, which GungHo owns, has significantly grown its revenue.

The company released Ragnarok M across Southeast Asia in October 2018 and in North America, South America and Oceania in January 2019.

This powered an increase in sales of 101.5 per cent year-on-year in Q1 to $117.5 million. That was also up 18 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Included in GungHo’s financials, Gravity represents 37 per cent of sales.

Gungho and Gravity sales

Operating profit for Gravity increased by a massive 390.5 per cent year-on-year to $21 million, also up 79.9 per cent.

Mobile sales represented $107 million of total revenue, up 135.7 per cent year-on-year and 17.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Ragnarok M will soon come to the Japanese market, published by GungHo.

You can gain more insights into the Asia markets on the East Meets West track at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong on July 17th to 18th. We're also hosting a free London-based 'East Meets West' mini-summit for the games industry on Wednesday, May 29th in association with Mintegral.

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Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.