In 2023, revenue saw a slight decrease of 1.9% to £2.02 billion (£2.02bn/€2.37bn) for Playtika, although the net profit took a significant hit, plummeting by 17.9% due to increased costs.
Throughout the year, Playtika expanded its portfolio by acquiring various assets.
Notably, in September, the company finalised its acquisition of Innplay Labs for $300.0m.
Additionally, in August, it concluded the purchase of the Youda Games portfolio of content from Azerion.
Earlier in the year, Playtika had expressed interest in acquiring Rovio Entertainment, renowned for the Angry Birds series, but eventually withdrew from the bidding process.
The acquisition was later made by Sega Sammy in August.
Looking back on 2023 and ahead to the current year, CEO Robert Antokol expressed intentions to explore new merger and acquisition opportunities.
However, ongoing uncertainty in Israel and Ukraine has led to a temporary halt in evaluating other strategic alternatives for the business.
Antokol remarked, “In the past year, we’ve honed our focus on efficiency and streamlined our operations, adapting to evolving industry dynamics in mobile gaming.
Now, with a solid foundation, 2024 marks our shift towards reinvestment – pursuing M&A opportunities with a strategic intent of capital deployment.”
In 2023, the majority of Playtika’s revenue was generated through third-party platforms, accounting for $1.93bn, a decrease of 4.0% compared to the previous year.
Revenue from direct-to-consumer platforms saw an increase of 5.4%, reaching $639.4m.
However, the growth in direct-to-consumer revenue was insufficient to offset the decline in third-party platform revenue, resulting in an overall decrease in total revenue.
Costs in 2023 were reduced to $2.07bn, marking a decrease of 3.7% from the previous year. Revenue costs constituted the largest portion of expenses at $718.5m, followed by sales and marketing at $585.7m. Across all areas, expenses were lower in 2023.
Despite a rise in pre-tax profit to $392.1m, up 8.7%, tax costs escalated to $157.1m, compared to $85.5m in the previous year.
After factoring in foreign currency translation and changes in the fair value of derivatives, net profit for 2023 amounted to $238.0m, down from $289.7m in 2022.
However, adjusted EBITDA increased by 3.4% to $832.2m for the year.
In the final quarter of 2023, revenue experienced a slight increase of 1.1% to $637.9m, while expenses rose by 3.0% to $517.9m.
Despite a net financial income of $32.6m, pre-tax profit declined by 4.9% to $87.4m compared to the previous year.
Higher tax payments in Q4 resulted in a 68.6% decrease in net profit, amounting to $33.4m for the quarter.