Zynga boosted by mobile despite audience decline in 2015

Zynga has revealed that despite having made “good progress” in mobile expansion during the 12 months through to December 31, it was hit by an overall decline in audience.

The social gaming company said that full-year revenue amounted to $764.7 million (€677.4 million), up 11% from the $690.5 million in the previous 12-month period.

Net loss improved from a negative of $225.9 million in 2014 to a loss of $117.2 million, while diluted net income per share also increased from a loss of $0.26 to negative $0.13.

Bookings were up slightly to just under $700 million for the full year, but Zynga noted that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation dropped 57% year-on-year from $39.9 million to $17.1 million.

Zynga also revealed a decline in audience, with average daily active users for the three months through to December 31 amounting to 18,000, down from 24,000 at the same point last year.

Average monthly active users for the same period fell from 98,000 to 68,000, while average monthly unique users also dropped from 64,000 to 48,000.

Analysing the results, founder and chief executive Mark Pincus cited the lack of new game releases as one of the main reasons behind a decline in audience in 2015, but said the company is preparing to address this with 10 new launches in the coming year.

“In terms of our financial scorecard, for 2015, we made good progress in our transition to mobile on a bookings level but, due to the lack of significant new releases, we saw an overall decline in our audience,” Pincus said.

“While our total bookings grew 1%, our core live mobile franchises – Slots, Words With Friends and Poker – were up 63% and all of mobile grew 35%.

“For 2016 and beyond, growth and profits will be driven by our ability to continue our momentum with live franchises and execute on new game launches.

“While we get that Zynga has been a show me story, in 2016, we have better visibility into our slate than ever before, with six new games already in soft launch.

“While we have high conviction in our ability to launch these games, the biggest challenge will be delivering on long-term retention and the LTV to support user acquisition at scale.”

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