Playtika’s ‘no new launches’ stance seems to have softened a little, with a new Wooga game set for release next year.
The Israeli firm said 18 months ago that it would not be launching any new games until the marketing landscape “fundamentally changes”. But it said in its Q2 2024 financial results yesterday that Playtika-owned Wooga plans to launch Claire’s Chronicles in Q2 2025.
In the earnings call that followed, CEO Robert Antokol explained Playtika’s decision to pause all game launches back in February 2023, and the slight shift in stance recently.
“We took a decision to focus more on M&A, and this is still our strategic decision,” he said, having referenced the acquisition of Governor of Poker 3. “We believe in M&A, and we think the ROI is much better for the future.”
He later said of Claire’s Chronicles: “We have a good opportunity to launch an amazing game and we have really good hopes for the game. So it’s not changing our strategic decision, but when we see good opportunities, we are going very strong on it.”
Antokol also talked through the current state of the market as his firm reported Q224 revenue of $627m, down 3.7% sequentially and 2.5% year over year.
“The market is challenging, we are not hiding this…we’re working really really hard, and I think we’re doing well compared to the market. On the other hand, we see opportunities for games that are growing… and I’m very optimistic about the market compared to other platforms like PC and console.”
Antokol later stressed again that buying and optimising games out on the market already will continue to be the Playtika strategy.
“M&A, for us, was always something that grew our business and in the last few years we did very few deals…our [only] major deals were last year and we’re already seeing the fruits of those. This is going to be the future growth for our company.”
While many of the company’s key titles saw revenue decline, Playtika was keen to stress the growth of its direct to consumer – AKA webshop – revenue.
It reported DTC platform revenue of $173.7m, an increase of 1.3% sequentially and 5.1% year over year. Net income was $86.6m, an increase of 63.4% sequentially and 14.4% YoY. Credit Adjusted EBITDA was $191m, an increase of 2.9% sequentially and drop of 11.2% YoY.
Other notable numbers from the Q2 2024 results included:
- Average Daily Paying Users stand at 298K, a 3.6% sequential drop and 2.9% YoY decline
- Average Payer Conversion is 3.7%, up from 3.5% in Q1 and 3.6% in Q2 2023
- Bingo Blitz revenue was $155.7m, a 1.2% sequential drop and 0.4% YoY decline
- Bingo Blitz’s DTC revenue grew “double-digits” YoY
- June’s Journey revenue was $74.6m, down 2.6% sequentially and up 1.9% YoY
- Slotomania revenue was $133.8m, down 1.2% sequentially and a decline of 7.5% YoY
CEO Antokol also touched upon what’s been happening in Playtika’s marketing arm after a reshuffle and the elimination of two exec roles. He said that the company was now thinking differently about marketing its games, he is very optimistic about the new structure and that there’s been a “change of behaviour in the company”.
Speaking about the mobile ecosystem in general, Antokol concluded that it had become a mature market, with few changes in the top grossing charts or new players coming in.
“It has become a tough market,” he added. “This is like the second phase of the mobile industry.”
