Playtika has completed its transition into a casual-first mobile game publisher and is effectively leaving social casino behind, says CEO Robert Antokol.
The comments came in Playtika’s Q126 financial results, in which Antokol claimed casual games were now 76% of the company’s business and the transition away from social casino is “largely complete”.
Antokol described Playtika as “a casual mobile gaming company with a strong social casino business”, adding:
“We are investing behind our winners and stepping back where the return profile is not there,” said Antokol. “That discipline is showing up in the revenue mix. Each year, more of our revenue comes from long-life casual games with broad reach.”
In prepared remarks, he also suggested that legacy titles like Slotomania, Bingo Blitz and World Series of Poker are effectively in a period of managed decline at Playtika:
“We are not making a forward promise of continued growth from here,” said Antokol of Playtika’s social casino games. “Flattening the decline and showing early stability is an important milestone, and it matters for the overall durability of the portfolio.”
In the Q&A that followed the prepared remarks, new CFO Tae Lee also noted that that the poker category was broadly stable but noted some pressure in the slots market.
Antokol also noted another quarter of record direct to consumer revenue and the strong performance of Disney Solitaire.
Playtika Q126 highlights:
- Total revenue of $744.7m, up 9.7% sequentially and 5.5% year over year
- Adjusted EBITDA was $125.2m, with a margin of 16.8%
- Net loss was $57.5m, and Adjusted Net Income was $13.6m
- DTC revenue of $291.8m, up 16.7% sequentially, and 62.8% YoY
Game highlights:
- Bingo Blitz: $153.7m in revenue, down 3% sequentially and 5.4% YoY
- Disney Solitaire: $123.3m in revenue, up 72.1% sequentially
- June’s Journey: $76m in revenue, up 8.7% sequentially and 10.4% YoY
Player metrics:
- Average Daily Paying Users: 387k, up 8.4% sequentially, down 0.8% YoY
- Average Daily Active Users: 8.6m, up 8.9% sequentially, down 4.4% YoY
- Monthly Active Users totaled 30.1m
- ARPDAU: up 1.1% sequentially and 8% YoY
Outlook:
- Revenue outlook raised for the year from $2.7-2.8bn to $2.75-2.85bn
- Adjusted EBITDA outlook raised from $730-770m to $750-790m
In its last set of financial results, Playtika said it had passed $1bn per year in direct to consumer revenue.
