July 29th, 2021 - Moscow, Russia: Global gaming brand MY.GAMES (part of Mail.ru Group) today announced its results for Q2 2021 - with revenue increasing by 1% and surpassing Q2 2020 in absolute revenues. This is all despite no new internal game launches and no significant studio acquisitions year-to-date, as well as IDFA related changes and the base effect. MY.GAMES received 74% of their games revenue in Q2 2021 outside Russia and CIS with the key markets being the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The company currently has more than 20 titles in the pipeline and the investment division - MCVG - also continues to develop the international and domestic business.
War Robots, Warface, Hustle Castle, Rush Royale and Grand Hotel Mania were the main revenue contributors in the second quarter of 2021. The mobile segment accounted for 77% of the total revenue of MY.GAMES. The company enjoyed consolidated success in Q2 - with updates to existing games performing well and hit mobile titles Rush Royale, Hustle Castle and War Robots, launching on PC.
Allods Team has announced the game Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread, a two-dimensional platformer with elements of metroidvania. The game will be available in early access from September this year. Release dates on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, XboxSeries X|S will be announced soon.
The mobile game Rush Royale reached the mark of 9 million downloads, although it was released only in December last year, and monthly revenue in June approached 400 million rubles (5.4m USD / 5.4m EUR), which set the project to one of the most successful launches in MY.GAMES history.
The Warface franchise reached 117.4 million players worldwide on all platforms during the second quarter of 2021 , and still remains among the top three in terms of revenue among MY.GAMES projects. On consoles, Warface has received a cross-play feature that unites more than 24 million PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch players on shared servers. The game has also been released on the Epic Games Store, which expands the games’ reach further..
As part of MY.GAMES ongoing investment in Cloud development June saw a strategic investment in Playkey as well as release of the MY.GAMES Cloud BETA for Mac OS in the Russian domestic market - the platform currently boasts more than 300 games and over 100k monthly active users (MAU).
Vasily Maguryan, CEO at MY.GAMES commented:
"In the second quarter of 2021, we managed to demonstrate growth against the background of a significant decline in the overall dynamics of the global games market. This was achieved by MY.GAMES strategic approach to portfolio diversification and our focus on organic product growth. The company's revenue grew by 18% in the first half of 2021, despite the effect of the high base of the previous year. In addition, we continue to successfully increase business efficiency — the second quarter of 2021 was the best in terms of marginality (24%) since the beginning of 2020."
Overall Highlights for Q2:
- MY.GAMES Q2 EBITDA stood at RUB 2.7bn ($36.4m / 30m EUR), delivering 13% YoY growth, with a margin of 24%, with the division on track to deliver a small margin improvement in 2021 and double-digit organic growth.
- The games War Robots, Warface franchise, Hustle Castle, Rush Royale and Grand Hotel Mania were the largest revenue contributors for the quarter.
- Share of revenue coming from markets outside Russia & CIS stood at 74%, with the US, Germany and the UK having the largest share in international revenue.
- Average MAU stood at 21.4mn in Q2 with a 4.7% share of paying monthly users, roughly unchanged versus the level seen in Q2 2020, during the peak of lockdowns and therefore player engagement.
Highlights for the mobile portfolio are:
- The top-5 revenue generating titles in Q2 remained War Robots, Hustle Castle, Rush Royale, Grand Hotel Mania and Left to Survive.
- War Robots (2014, Pixonic studio) shooter reached 197mn users in June, with average monthly revenue of ~RUB 800mn ($10.8m / 9m EUR) in Q2 and significant positive EBITDA contribution.
- The RPG, Hustle Castle (2017, Nord Studio), reached 70mn downloads, with RUB 400mn ($5.4m / 4.4m EUR) in monthly revenue in Q2.
- Other highlights from Nord Studio included Zero City (~19mn downloads, RUB 150mn ($2m / 2m EUR) in monthly revenue) and American Dad! Apocalypse Soon, which performed well, with 9mn cumulative downloads as of the end of Q2.
- The Grand Hotel Mania (2020, Deus Craft) - a time management game reached 12mn installs, with ~RUB 300mn ($4m / 3.3m EUR) in monthly revenue in Q2.
- Left to Survive (2018, Whalekit) shooter reached 38mn downloads and exceeded RUB 200mn ($2.7m / 2.2m EUR) in monthly revenue in Q2, with >20% YoY growth along with almost 2x EBITDA improvement. Whalekit’s other title, Warface: Global Operations (2020), reached 18mn downloads.
- The Rush Royale (2020, IT Territory studio) a tower defense game reached 9mn downloads since its launch in December with monthly revenue exceeding RUB 400mn ($5.4m / 4.4m EUR) in June, which makes it one of the most successful launches in MY.GAMES history.
- Tacticool (2019, Panzerdog) top-down pvp mobile shooter game reached ~20mn downloads and achieved a new monthly revenue record of RUB 150mn+ ($2m / 2m EUR) in April with >50% YoY revenue growth.
Highlights for the PC and Console portfolio are:
- The Warface (2013, PC/console/mobile) first-person shooter franchise reached 117.4mn players worldwide across all platforms and remains a top-3 revenue generator for MY.GAMES. Warface cross-play became available on console, connecting over 24mn of its players across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch to the same server. Warface was also added to Epic Games Store, broadening distribution of this key franchise title.
- Allods Team has announced a new title – Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread, which is 2D action-adventure platformer with metroidvania elements. It's coming to Steam later this year. Launch dates on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S will be announced soon.
- Lost Ark (PC, licensed from Smilegate) MMORPG released an update on Russia language servers and also announced an update with a 19th new class Demon Hunter on Russian language servers.
- Tactical action MMO Conqueror's Blade (2019, PC, licensed from Booming Games) reached 3.4mn in users and showed >50% YoY revenue growth in Q2 after another game update rolled out in March.
- Free-to-play MMO Skyforge (2017, PC, Allods Team) reached 13mn in registered users.
- In Q2 MY.GAMES continued to port its own mobile titles to PC on MY.GAMES Store as part of internal cross-selling and cross-integration, with Rush Royale, War Robots and Hustle Castle released in Q2.
Highlights for Strategic Investments are:
- As part of its Cloud development efforts, in June MY.GAMES completed consolidation of Playkey, while also releasing the beta of MY.GAMES Cloud on Mac OS, with 300+ games and 100k MAU.
- MY.GAMES Store launched MY.GAMES Boost - a crowdfunding service based on the internal Boosty.to service, allowing content creators to receive donations for their work.
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About MY.GAMES:
MY.GAMES is an international gaming brand (part of Mail.ru Group) and a leading online entertainment company. MY.GAMES comprises 11 regional offices in Russia, Europe and the US, over 1,800 staff, and 13 development studios. MY.GAMES creates titles for the PC, consoles, and mobile devices. The company operates over 80 projects, with more than 150 titles in its portfolio including War Robots, Hustle Castle, Left to Survive, Skyforge, and Allods Online. MY.GAMES portfolio includes renowned titles like Warface, ArcheAge, Perfect World, Revelation Online, Conqueror's Blade, Lost Ark, and more.
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