Feature

Here’s how much money Rovio’s mobile games are making

Angry Birds 2 up 49 per cent in gross bookings

Here’s how much money Rovio’s mobile games are making

Finnish Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment has revealed a slew of interesting stats detailing the performance of its key mobile games in its annual report for 2018.

The document details the company’s financial year highlighting its success with Angry Birds 2 as well as its upcoming projects, including a yet to be released title and The Angry Birds Movie 2.

Concentrating on the games segment: revenue from January to December 2018 grew to €250.4 ($282.3) million, which represented a one per cent increase year-on-year from €248 ($279.6) million in 2017.

Splitting 2018 games sales from its monetisation models, 89 per cent was reported to come from in-app purchases while the remaining 11 per cent in-game advertising.

Average revenue per daily active user grew by 31 per cent while monthly average revenue per paying user saw an increase of 8 per cent.

Game-by-game breakdown

Angry Birds 2 is given a lot of coverage throughout the report, not surprising given its standing as the company’s flagship title. The slow-starting sequel brought in €117 million ($131.9m) for 2018, equalling to a 49 per cent increase in gross bookings year-on-year. Since releasing in 2015, Angry Birds 2 has generated €253 ($285.3) million.

Angry Birds Friends meanwhile has made €120m ($135.4m) in nearly four years, with €31m ($34.9m) of that coming from 2018.

Angry Birds Match will turn two in August 2019, and to date has made €37m ($41.7m) since launch. Numbers for the match-three title nearly doubled year-on-year in 2018 with €26m ($29.3m) generated.

Angry Birds 2 has become Rovio's flagship mobile game since launching in 2015

€62m ($70m) million in revenue was made from Angry Birds Blast since its release in December 2016, while €21m ($23.7m) of that originated from 2018.

Launched in June 2017, 3D puzzle RPG Angry Birds Evolution has accumulated €38m ($42.9m) million. The game made €16m ($18m) million in revenue in 2018.

The final title from the crazed featherbrains is Angry Birds Pop, with €76m ($85.8m) made overall. €15m ($16.9m) of that number was generated in 2018.

Battle Bay is the only title in Rovio’s catalogue not featuring the Angry Birds. That game has produced €23m ($25.9m) million in overall revenue since launching in May 2017, with €9m ($10.1m) of that made in 2018.

Four billion downloads

Throughout its lifetime, the Angry Birds franchise has racked up more than four billion downloads globally.

Outside of the games, 1.8 billion units of branded consumer products have been purchased and videos related to the IP have been viewed more than three billion times.

“In 2019, we expect our total revenue to grow to €300m to 330m ($338.8m - $372.6m) and our adjusted operating profit margin to be nine to 11 per cent,” said Rovio CEO Kati Levoranta.

“In 2019 we aim to release at least two new games, and the first game Angry Birds Dream Blast was launched on January 24th, 2019, and we expect the sequel to the Angry Birds Movie to premiere in August 2019. What is more, Angry Birds will celebrate its 10th anniversary in December 2019, which is a great milestone for us.”

The Angry Birds Movie 2 releases in August 2019

Along with this, Rovio’s strategy going forward includes experimenting in areas such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and game streaming.

The company already holds an 80 per cent stake in cloud games service and streaming platform Hatch Entertainment. However Levoranta recently stated that the firm is looking to reduce its stake to below 50 per cent.

With the Angry Birds sequel due to hit cinemas in August 2019 and another mobile game release set within the next nine months, it will be fascinating to see how Rovio performs for the rest of the year and if it can recover its share price from its 2017 high.

Deputy Editor

Matthew Forde is the deputy editor at PocketGamer.biz and also a member of the Pocket Gamer Podcast. You can find him on Twitter @MattForde64 talking about stats, data and everything pop culture related - particularly superheroes.