Revealed: Mobile publishers share their record D2C sales

• Playtika claims its D2C annual run-rate has reached $1.2bn.
• MTG said D2C made up 39% of group revenue in Q1 2026.
• Stillfront Group reported that 44% of bookings are now going through the publisher's D2C platform.

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The latest direct-to-consumer numbers are out. As we’ve been doing in previous quarters, here we round up the results with real figures from the top public mobile games companies for January to March 2026. So let’s take a look.

Playtika had another “record breaking” quarter in Q1 for direct-to-consumer as revenue rose 16.7% from the previous quarter and up 62.8% year-over-year. D2C accounted for 39.2% of sales during the quarter, while the company claims it has grown close to a $1.2bn annual run-rate through its own platform.

Overall revenue for the company rose 9.7% sequentially and 5.5% Y/Y to $744.7m.

“When you own the transaction, you improve unit economics and gain more direct tools to engage and serve players over time, which supports durability,” said Playtika CEO Robert Antokol. “Every quarter, this becomes more central to how we operate.”

Modern Times Group (MTG), which owns developers including Hutch Games, Snowprint Studios, InnoGames, Plarium, PlaySimple and Ninja Kiwi, said D2C made up 39% of group revenue in Q1, compared to 24% the year prior. 

Specifically, it noted the “Midcore District” of its portfolio saw 49% of its sales come from D2C during the quarter, up from 32% the year prior and 42% in Q4.

Stillfront Group, whose company portfolio includes Goodgame Studios and Babil Games, reported 44% of bookings are now going through a D2C platform, up from 36%. This means that in Q1, Stillfront Group made approximately the same from D2C bookings as third-party stores, with 12% coming from ads.

Curiously, the publisher said this was “negative for net revenue but accretive to gross profit and gross margin”.

“This is primarily driven by players actively being incentivised to move to Stillfront’s D2C payment solutions. Sequentially, the D2C share decreased by one percentage point, due to product mix effects.”

Elsewhere, social casino developer SciPlay saw D2C revenue grow to a record $50m in Q1, up 85% Y/Y. It now represents 27% of company sales. Casino and Tetris publisher Playstudios saw D2C sales rise approximately 150% Y/Y to $12.4m in Q1.

Ten Square Games said D2C now accounts for 20% of group bookings, with Fishing Clash alone seeing a 33% share from off-store purchases. The company’s CTO Janusz Dziemidowicz labelled its D2C efforts as of “strategic importance”.

Huuuge Games, meanwhile, has seen D2C hit a record high revenue share of 41.2% in Q1, rising to approximately 42% in April 2026. D2C sales in Q1 hit $23.28m, up 89.8% from the year prior. Like Ten Square, Huuuge called these off-store sales a “strategic priority” for its business.

G5 Entertainment said D2C drove a 24% Y/Y reduction in commissions paid to distributors in Q1. G5 Store gross revenue increased by 18.9% Y/Y and 1.3% sequentially. It now accounts for 22.6% of total group revenue, up from 16.9% the year prior.

Finally, over at Take-Two, while it didn’t give specifics on Zynga’s D2C sales, the presentation deck for the publisher’s Q4 financials noted its aim to expand its D2C platform to enhance margins and community relations. 

“As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, we are even more confident in the sustainability and growth profile of this platform,” said CEO Strauss Zelnick.

It’s fascinating to see a couple of publishers calling the D2C shift a “strategic” priority. What’s even more interesting is the convergence in the revenue share of D2C and store sales. Grim reading for Apple and Google.

We’ll be talking plenty about direct-to-consumer at Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona on June 15th and 16th. In fact, I’ll be hosting three talks on the topic! This includes panels with Xsolla, Tilting Point, Stash, Pixel Federation, Breeze and others. 

I’ll also be hosting my own session with D2C sales findings - I hope to see you among the 1,000 other attendees we’re expecting at the show!

Main image credit: Pirate Kings, Playtika.