Playtika has reported stronger second-quarter revenue and a sharp profit improvement, while softening its full-year performance expectations for 2026.
The mobile-games group retained its annual guidance ranges but signalled that both revenue and adjusted earnings are likely to finish near their lower limits.
Revenue for the quarter reached $731.1m, up 5% year on year, though it came in 1.8% below the first quarter of the year.
Net income climbed to $48m from $33.2m, while adjusted EBITDA surged 23.4% annually to $206.1m, producing a 28.2% margin.
CEO Robert Antokol struck a confident tone, saying: “Our second quarter results demonstrate what has always been at the heart of Playtika, we build games that keep players engaged for years, not quarters.”
Antokol added: “These results reflect the durability of our model and the discipline of our execution.”
The margin recovery was largely driven by a significant planned reduction in marketing spend, with sales and marketing costs falling to $252.6m from $360.6m in the first quarter.
SuperPlay, Playtika’s largest recent acquisition, also turned into a positive adjusted EBITDA contributor during the quarter, further improving the group’s financial picture.
Direct-to-consumer revenue reached $286.9m, representing roughly 39% of group revenue and rising 63.1% from the same period last year.
Playtika’s direct platforms carry payment costs of approximately 3% to 4%, a meaningful advantage over the much higher fees charged by third-party platforms.
The quarter revealed a notable divergence between audience size and player spending, with average daily active users declining 9.1% annually to 8 million and monthly active users dropping 17.3% to 24.8 million.
Average daily paying users also fell 2.9% year on year to 367,000, yet payer conversion actually improved to 4.6% from 4.3% in the prior-year period.
Average revenue per daily active user rose to $1.01 from $0.87, meaning Playtika generated more revenue from a measurably smaller audience base.
Disney Solitaire remained the company’s most powerful growth engine, with revenue climbing 288.6% annually to $142.4m and rising 15.5% from the first quarter.
Bingo Blitz moved in the opposite direction, falling 9.5% annually to $145.1m, while June’s Journey delivered a more positive 8.1% rise to $74.7m.
Cash and short-term investments stood at $438.5m, following a $461m SuperPlay earnout payment made in April after the acquired studio performed ahead of its original targets.
Playtika reaffirmed revenue guidance of $2.75bn to $2.85bn and adjusted EBITDA guidance of $750m to $790m for the full year.
Management cited a more cautious consumer-spending outlook and planned reductions in second-half marketing as reasons for expecting results near the lower end of those ranges.
With first-half revenue totalling $1.48bn, Playtika needs approximately $1.27bn across the final six months to reach the bottom of its guidance range.
The second-half outlook now hinges on two opposing forces, with reduced marketing lowering costs while declining active user numbers narrow the available conversion base.
