Angry Birds Dream Blast was Rovio’s biggest game of Q3 with gross bookings of 24.9 million euros compared to 14.9 million in 2021, representing a year-on-year increase of 67.7%.

The company’s latest financial report analyses the company’s performance over the first quarter of 2023, and the period saw the company generate 76 million euros, representing a 10.5% decrease from 85 million in the same period of 2022. In contrast, the company saw a 17.5% increase in both operating profit (8.8 million euros compared to 7.5 million) and an 8.8% increase in EBITDA (12.1 million euros compared to 11.1 million) over the same period. However, adjusted operating profit fell slightly from 11.8% in Q1 2022 to 11.5% in Q1 2023.

“In the first quarter of 2023, Angry Birds Dream Blast continued its strong growth and reached a new revenue record, growing by 67.7% compared to the same period last year and by 15.3% compared to the previous quarter,” said Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand. “Looking at our performance as a whole, our comparable gross bookings grew by 0.9% sequentially, overall in line with the US mobile gaming market, slowly recovering from the weaker than normal holiday season in December. During the same period, we were pleased to see our new games taking leaps forward.

“Our comparable revenue decreased by 13.2% against the same period in the previous year, largely due to the launch of Angry Birds Journey in early 2022 affecting the comparison figures. Our adjusted operating profit declined in line with the lower revenue.”

Angry Birds rules the roost

The Angry Birds franchise dominated the company’s financial performance over Q1. While Angry Birds Dream Blast came in pole position, Angry Birds 2 was a close second generating 24.8 million euros in gross bookings. This was followed by Angry Birds Friends (8.6 million euros), Angry Birds Journey (3.6 million euros) and Angry Birds Pop! (1.7 million euros.)

The franchise’s dominance has historically led to Rovio being considered something of a one trick pony, however with Angry Birds’ performance both in the games space and the wider entertainment industry, it’s clear that this trick remains successful. The company was acquired by Sega for 706 million euros in April, raising the possibility of both future console games and the development of mobile games based on Sega IPs by Rovio.

The company’s slate of hypercasual titles generated a collective 2.8 million euros, while all other games drew a combined total of 5.5 million.

We listed Rovio as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.