BENGALURU: Non-Candy Crush Saga titles generated US$ 375 million, or 62 percent of total gross bookings in Q1-2015, up from 55 percent of gross bookings in Q4- 2014 says interactive entertainment company for mobile, King in its earnings release. The US$ 375 million gross booking represents a sequential increase of US$ 51 million, or 16 percent, and a year over year increase of US$ 164 million, or 78 percent.
The company’s gross bookings (non-GAAP) for Q4-2015 declined 5.7 percent to US$ 604.5 million in the current quarter (quarter ended March 31, 2015, Q1-2015) from US$ 641.1 million in the corresponding year ago quarter.
Results as per GAAP show revenue in Q1-2015 fell 6.1 percent to US$ 569.51 million as compared to the Rs 606.71 million in Q1-2014. King’s profit after tax increased 29 percent to US$ 164.31 million as compared to the US$ 127.2 million in Q1-2014. Earnings per share (EPS) in Q1-2015 improved 24.3 percent to US$ 0.51 from US$ 0.41 in the corresponding quarter of last year.
King says that the decreases in both gross bookings and revenue from first quarter 2014 to first quarter 2015 were primarily due to lower gross bookings from Candy Crush Saga and some of our other more mature games, partially offset by increased gross bookings from some of our newer games, in particular Candy Crush Soda Saga.
Company speak
King CEO Riccardo Zacconi said, “Our first quarter 2015 results demonstrate the continued strength of our franchises, with Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Farm Heroes Saga remaining top 10 grossing games in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the U.S. We are pleased by the sustained popularity of our games which is also reflected in our second consecutive quarter of company-high network reach metrics and we look forward to leveraging the extraordinary power of our massive player base in launching new innovative games in 2015 and beyond.”
Performance on Key Matrices
The company reported improvement in general in the performance of key matrices. Its monthly active users (MAU) increased from 481 million in Q1-2014 to 550 million in the current quarter. Daily active users (DAU) increased to 158 million from 143 million in the corresponding year ago quarter. There were more monthly unique uses (MUU) in Q1-2015 at 364 million as compared to the 352 million in Q1-2014. The monthly gross average bookings per paying user (MGABPPU) increased to US$ 23.64 in Q1-2015 as compared to US$ 18.02 in the previous year ago quarter. King says that the network grew to record MAUs, DAUs, and MUUs for the second consecutive quarter, and reached a new quarterly high of approximately 1.6 billion average daily game plays in Q1-2015.
Outlook
The following forward-looking statement reflects King’s expectations as of 14 May, 2015:
Based on our game release schedule, the impact of foreign currency changes to date and recent trends, we expect gross bookings of US$ 490 million to US$ 520 million in second quarter 2015. Taking these factors into account as we look toward the remainder of the year, we expect the mid-year period to be seasonally softer, returning to growth trends in the latter part of the year.