Esports Drives Record-High Revenues For Nvidia, Ubisoft, And More
The esports industry has been on a steady growth path within the last couple of years, and the companies involved are feeling it. A growing number of gaming companies are reporting record financial figures, mostly driven by the ever-growing industry of competitive gaming.
Nvidia, for starters
American technology company Nvidia recently released its financial results for the first quarter of 2018. Up 66 percent year-over-year since Q1 in 2017, the firm broke last year’s revenue records, standing at $3.21 billion. Of this, $1.72 billion was contributed by the gaming segment, which saw an increase of 68 percent over last year.
The recent explosion in popularity for battle royale titles like PUBG and Fortnite has led more customers to the company’s gaming platform, GeForce.
Nvidia CEO Colette M. Kress noted during the conference call that esports drove the sales of high-end GPUs, as hardware requirements are becoming more demanding.
While the company also manufactures processors for consoles like the Nintendo Switch, the major source for gaming revenue still comes from the PC area. This ushered the company into pursuing collaborations with major esports organizations like Team Liquid and Natus Vincere.
Ubisoft reports record sales, esports engagement
French game publisher Ubisoft also recently announced financial results for fiscal year 2017-18, with highlights linked to the success of the esports industry.
Reporting record user engagement thanks mainly to its popular Rainbow Six Siege, the company realized sales in the amount of $2.04 billion, up 18 percent year-over-year.
“Ubisoft ended the fiscal year on a very positive note, with continued excellent execution across the board,” said Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot in the earnings release. “During the fourth quarter, we reached a record of peak concurrent users thanks to record engagement levels and esports viewership for Rainbow Six Siege, the successful launch of Far Cry 5 – the second biggest launch in Ubisoft’s history – and continued strong performance by Assassin’s Creed Origins, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and our back-catalog titles.”
With Player Recurring Investment (RPI) up 58.7 percent to $568.6 million, the firm is capitalizing on the continuous success of the competitive gaming market.
Tencent announces record profits for Q1 2018
Chinese gaming giant Tencent also turned in record profits for its most recent quarter. The company posted 2018 Q1 financial results, stating online gaming business as the main growth driver. With a 48 percent increase in revenue compared to last year, Tencent ended with $11.7 billion for the period.
The strong financials and solid growth was supported by the incredible success of Honor of Kings. It’s not the first time the company blew past expectations thanks to its thriving gaming business. The company already recorded impressive figures during its third quarter of 2017, beating profit projections thanks partially to its smart phone games and PC games segments.
While the company’s PC user base has experienced a decline compared to last year, the signature Honor of Kings game helped online games revenue grow by 26 percent year-over-year.
Ultimately, Tencent has been steadily expanding its esports industry presence over the last year. Not only has the company invested in live streaming platforms Douyu TV and Huya, but it also made sure to be on the recent Fortnite hype bandwagon by holding a 40 percent ownership stake at the game’s developer, Epic Games.
Since: September 12, 2015
