Scopely has once more made it very clear that it is making plentiful profit from its breakout hit Monopoly Go.
Speaking at today’s Think Games event in Istanbul, Scopely SVP Jamie Berger said that the game was “extremely profitable”, and that’s what has allowed the firm to spend big on acquiring users.
“We believe in running great businesses, and we know that to be a great business is to be profitable,” Berger said.
“And when I say profit, it’s not future profit. And so, just to put this to bed, this kind of strange debate, Monopoly Go is very profitable on an EBITDA basis every day, every month, every quarter.”
“To put some context around it, it was revealed in the Hasbro investor call that we generated $800 million of revenue in Q4. That gives you a perspective on the scale of the business, on a run rate basis.”
Berger continued: “And people are saying, well, how can you invest a lot and be profitable? Well, there’s your answer. If you have an $800 million quarterly business, you can invest aggressively and still be extremely profitable if you’re running it with a lot of discipline, which we do.”
The debate Berger was referring to was sparked by our report from last year, in which we asked several UA experts to estimate the game’s total UA spend. It prompted fierce debate within the mobile games business, and caused Scopely to issue a statement clarifying that its UA spend has not outgrown the game’s revenue. It read:
“As we shared before, we’re proud that Monopoly Go is currently one of the most profitable mobile games – any claim otherwise is inaccurate.”
Scopely continued: “The Monopoly brand’s organic appeal combined with the highly social gameplay of Monopoly Go has attracted one of the most engaged mobile audiences in the world, with an unprecedented retention curve.”
“Our UA teams are some of the best and most sophisticated in the business, always spending strategically, continuously unlocking profitable channels and building very large audiences – but doing so in magnitudes of dollar spend well below what was cited by a third-party who isn’t familiar with our business.”
“We hope the industry doesn’t get discouraged by (wildly) speculative statements not rooted in fact. We firmly believe (and have proven) that smart, not unfettered, spending on products with exceptional player KPIs can build a very large and profitable game business shortly after a product’s launch.”
