Social gaming operator Zynga almost managed to stop the slide in its number of players in the third quarter of 2016.
On Wednesday, Zynga reported revenue of $182.4m in the three months ending September 30. That’s down nearly 7% year-on-year but basically flat from Q2. The company also reported a net loss of $41.7m thanks to $21m in intangible asset impairment and higher costs from the launch of new game titles.
Online game revenue totaled $134m, down 11% year-on-year, while advertising revenue rose 8% to $48m. Bookings, the sale of virtual goods to gamers, rose 13% to $196.7m. Mobile revenue now accounts for 80% of the overall pie, up from 64% in Q3 2015.
Zynga’s average daily active user (DAU) ranks fell 5.2% to 18m, although that’s better than Q2’s 15% fall. The decline was primarily web-based, as web DAUs slipped 21% while mobile DAUs nudged up 1%. Average daily bookings per average DAU improved 16% to 11.6¢ and the number of average monthly unique payers shot up 48% to 1.3m.
Zynga’s mainstay social casino product accounted for 54% of all game revenue (35% slots, 19% poker). Wizard of Oz Slots and Hit It Rich! Slots each accounted for 12% of revenue, although the Hit It Rich share was four points lower than in Q3 2015.
Mobile bookings for the entire Social Slots portfolio were up 26% year-on-year but down 3% from Q2. Similarly, Zynga Poker’s mobile bookings were up 16% year-on-year but down 1% from Q2, in part due to the web product dealing with “a number of short-term fraud issues.”
Zynga launched some major new titles in Q3, including CSR2, the sequel to its popular racing title, and the latest version of its venerable Farmville franchise, Farmville: Tropic Escape.
Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau (pictured) said the Q3 results showed that “the turnaround is gaining momentum.” Despite the negative highlights, Gibeau said the company had “executed well on our core business and our new launches.”
Looking ahead to Q4, Zynga said it expects revenue to come in between $180m and $190m, while posting a net loss of between $25m and $27m. Q4 will also see the full launch of the new Dawn of Titans real-time strategy game, which was developed by Zynga’s UK studio.
