Zynga clocks revenue record for Q1 but no profit

Zynga, the venerable social gaming pioneer, clocked in a record amount of revenue in Q1 2018 with a whopping $265 million passing through its doors during the three months ending on March 31, 2019. As is so often the case in the upside down world of social gaming, that record revenue haul did not actually translate into a profit. And, as is so often the case in the upside world of Wall Street, investors still drove Zynga stock up an astonishing 10 percent for the day.
$265 million is a lot of money for any company to bring in in such a short time and it was a full 27 percent higher than Zynga’s take for Q1 2018. But when all costs were accounted for, including some significant deferred payments, Zynga actually wound up losing $128.8 million, according to a report on CalvinAyre.com.
So what’s driving the big revenue boom at Zynga? In this case, it’s all about the mobile games. A full $246 million of tht $265 million take was generated by Zynga’s mobile properties. That’s up a full 77 percent from the same period in 2018. Zynga’s flagship mobile game Words with Friends accounted for 15 percent of the company’s mobile revenue, which is down from 17 percent for Q1 last year.
One of the reasons Zynga could see see-saw movements in its products and still see significant growth is that it’s really expanded its portfolio of games over the years. In truth, the company that once counted on games like Texas Hold ‘Em and social slots for a significant amount of revenue, saw losses from both those properties.
None of what the layman would see as bad news was seen that way on Wall Street. Investors drove Zynga stock up 10 percent over the course of the day, which is even more impressive given the fact that it was actually down 2.65 percent in overnight trading.