As 2023 draws swiftly to a close, Ten Square Games has released its financial report for the third quarter of the year. It follows a troubled 2022 where overall revenues declined 23% to $116 million, and a difficult beginning to 2023 with two major projects axed and a quarter of all staff members made redundant.
In the release of Ten Square Games’ first quarter financials, the company acknowledged that new "strategic priorities" would be necessary and that it would need to focus on its core games.
This new strategy seems to be paying off as record highs were achieved in the third quarter, with Ten Square Games arriving at a zł33.7 million ($8.5 million) adjusted EBITDA - a quarter-on-quarter increase of a massive 53.4%.
Clashing for the top
Ten Square Games’ record-high adjusted EBITDA would be enough on its own to suggest the success of the new strategy, but a 9.1% QoQ rise in bookings only helps to reinforce this. The main drivers of Q3 growth were mobile titles Fishing Clash and Hunting Clash, the former of which partnered with the Major Fishing League this summer to bring a real-life tournament to Ten Square’s title.
New features in the studio’s core games and enhanced user experiences also fueled growth, with an increase in player engagement by 17.4% quarterly in Fishing Clan and 82% in Hunting Clash; as of Q3 2023, the games’ monthly active playerbases have reached 2.7 million and 2.0 million respectively.
"Ten Square Games Company is one of the few players in the mobile games market that are able to generate high, steady monthly operating cash flow on the basis of its biggest games, regardless of the release calendar of new titles. Our business model provides us with regular funding both to maintain the Company, develop our games and share the value we generate with shareholders," said Ten Square Games CEO Andrzej Ilczuk, nominated by the board this April.
The full quarterly report details share buyback plans and a programme convened for December 19.
Fellow mobile games maker NetEase has seen a strong Q3 performance too, with profits rising 23.4% to a huge $2.3 billion.
