Updated Apr 30, 2026 by Ubisoft
Financial
Published by Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s first-quarter results for fiscal year 2025-26 reflect a period of mixed performance, with net bookings reaching €281.6 million. This figure fell short of internal expectations, representing a 2.9% decline compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. The shortfall is primarily attributed to technical pricing issues involving prepaid currency cards that impacted in-game spending for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, alongside unfavorable foreign exchange impacts. Despite these setbacks, the company maintains its full-year financial targets, which include stable year-on-year net bookings and a break-even non-IFRS operating income. The company is currently undergoing a significant organizational transformation, shifting toward a model centered on autonomous business units known as Creative Houses. This strategy is designed to enhance creative focus, accountability, and operational agility across its diverse portfolio. The first of these units, which oversees flagship franchises including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, has already appointed its leadership team. Furthermore, the company continues to progress toward the closing of its transaction with Tencent, which is anticipated by the end of 2025. Operational highlights for the quarter include strong engagement for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which surpassed 5 million unique players, and a robust start for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. While the Rainbow Six Siege pricing exploit caused temporary disruption, the title showed strong recovery in June, achieving its third-highest monthly active user performance in history. Looking ahead, the company expects second-quarter net bookings to reach approximately €450 million, supported by new B2B partnerships and continued content expansion across its core titles.
UBISOFT REPORTS FIRST-QUARTER 2025-26 SALES In €m Reported % of total net bookings Q1 change vs. Q1 Q1 2025-26 Q1 2024-25 2025-26 2024-25 IFRS 15 sales 310.8 -3.9% NA NA Net bookings 281.6 -2.9% NA NA Digital net bookings 250.2 -2.7% 88.8% 88.7% PRI net bookings 151.8 -4.3% 53.9% 54.7% Back-catalog net bookings 260.4 +4.4% 92.5% 86.0% Q1 Net Bookings reached €281.6m, below expectations, reflecting a lower-than-expected performance for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Siege, a partnership that is now expected to materialize in Q2 and, to a lesser extent, an unfavorable foreign exchange impact. Progress on Group transformation: Ubisoft to reorganize into Creative Houses. These business units will enhance quality, focus, autonomy and accountability while fostering closer connections with players. The first Creative House is the new subsidiary announced in March with a recently appointed dedicated leadership. Closing of the transaction with Tencent is progressing well and, subject to regulatory approval, continues to be expected by the end of 2025. 2025-26 targets confirmed: Stable net bookings year-on-year, approximately break-even non- IFRS operating income and negative free cash flow. Following the closing of the Tencent transaction, the Group expects to maintain a consolidated non-IFRS net debt position of around zero. PARIS - July 22, 2025 – Today, Ubisoft released its sales figures for the first quarter of fiscal 2025-26, i.e., the three months ended June 30, 2025.
sh flow. Following the closing of the Tencent transaction, the Group expects to maintain a consolidated non-IFRS net debt position of around zero. PARIS - July 22, 2025 – Today, Ubisoft released its sales figures for the first quarter of fiscal 2025-26, i.e., the three months ended June 30, 2025. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said “The first quarter delivered mixed results. On the positive side, Assassin’s Creed Shadows delivered on its expectations, with now more than 5 million unique players since its launch, and Rainbow Six Siege X received highly positive player feedback thanks to its renewed gameplay and enhanced features that drove significant player engagement growth. However, player spending in Rainbow Six Siege faced temporary but significant disruptions due to technical pricing issues, which have now been identified and addressed. Despite this one-off setback, the growth potential of the game is strong with solid traction on activity and in-game spending. We also continued to make meaningful progress on Ubisoft’s transformation by outlining a new operating model built around business units, called Creative Houses. These units will reflect our diverse types of gaming experiences and will allow for enhanced quality, focus, autonomy and accountability. Over time, each of these Creative Houses will boost creative vision and business performance.
erating model built around business units, called Creative Houses. These units will reflect our diverse types of gaming experiences and will allow for enhanced quality, focus, autonomy and accountability. Over time, each of these Creative Houses will boost creative vision and business performance. The new Subsidiary announced earlier this year and overseeing our flagship brands – Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six – is the first of these Creative Houses. The recent announcement of its leadership team marks an important milestone as we move toward a more agile and focused organization while ensuring necessary long-term stability and creative vision.”
Q1 ACTIVITY Overall, first quarter net bookings reached €282m, below the guidance, reflecting a lower-thanexpected performance for Rainbow Six Siege, a partnership that is now expected to materialize in Q2 and, to a lesser extent, an unfavorable foreign exchange impact. Back Catalog net bookings stood at €260m, up 4% year-on-year and 6% excluding partnerships. Assassin’s Creed® Shadows performed in line with expectations and recently crossed the 5 million player mark. Ongoing additions continue to enhance the player experience, most notably the recent Parkour update, which introduced new interactions for both Naoe and Yasuke and was well received by players. Ahead of the Holiday season, the mid-term potential of the game will be supported by the Claws of Awaji expansion, coming in Q2, that will introduce more than 10 hours of new content along with a new weapon, skills and abilities, further expanding and enriching the game experience. The Rainbow Six Siege X update was launched on June 10, alongside Year 10 Season 2, introducing a significant evolution to its business model, major upgrades to core systems including gameplay improvements, a permanent new 6v6 game mode called Dual Front and enhanced player protection features. The launch received strong community feedback, with players praising the visual upgrades, modernized maps with new environmental destruction and the improved onboarding mechanics. While resolved in June, player spending this quarter saw a significant impact from a pricing exploit with prepaid currency cards that temporarily inflated virtual currency wallets.
raising the visual upgrades, modernized maps with new environmental destruction and the improved onboarding mechanics. While resolved in June, player spending this quarter saw a significant impact from a pricing exploit with prepaid currency cards that temporarily inflated virtual currency wallets. However, the momentum since launch is encouraging with acquisition levels trending around 5 times above the same period last year. Session Days were up 25% year-on-year in June since launch and 65% compared to the 3-prior week’s baseline. Overall, June delivered the third-strongest MAU performance in the game’s history, trailing only the two peak months during the Covid period in Spring 2020. Session Days have continued to grow 20% in July to date. Despite the one-off pricing setback, in-game spending has also shown positive traction, with the Valkyrie Paragon becoming the highest-performing bundle launch in terms of currency spend. These developments reflect growing sustained interest in the game and indicate that the evolving content and engagement strategies are resonating with players. Thanks to its engine upgrade, the ambitious Siege X update will enable much stronger quality and velocity of content releases, setting the foundations for the years to come.
sustained interest in the game and indicate that the evolving content and engagement strategies are resonating with players. Thanks to its engine upgrade, the ambitious Siege X update will enable much stronger quality and velocity of content releases, setting the foundations for the years to come. It is not viewed as a single moment, but as the beginning of a longer journey, and the long-term growth trajectory of the title is very promising. Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2 had a very strong start to the fiscal year with the launch of Year 7, the Battle for Brooklyn DLC release, a new Season and its inclusion in the Game Pass that drove significant growth in acquisition and engagement, reaching its highest activity performance since May 2020. Elsewhere in the catalog, Star Wars Outlaws™ released its second DLC, A Pirate’s Fortune, in mid-May. The update received positive reviews, with players praising the return of legendary pirate Hondo Ohnaka, the story and new gameplay elements. The game is also set to reach a broader audience with its upcoming release on the Switch 2 console on September 4.
The survey, conducted by Aream & Co., gauges executive optimism regarding consumer spending on gaming in 2025 across multiple channels and functional areas. Overall, 49 % of respondents view spending as “more optimistic,” another 49 % see it as unchanged, and only 2 % are less optimistic. When broken down by platform, mobile spending is perceived as more optimistic (49 %) while PC and console views are split between “more” (15–33 %) and “about the same.” In‑app purchases are viewed as more optimistic (80 %) versus in‑app advertising (41 %). Key challenges identified include content saturation and over‑supply, with 33 % citing these as concerns; marketing environment issues affect 49 %, and macro conditions are a worry for 17 %. Despite these, 54 % anticipate more new games in 2025, and 37 % expect higher average budgets. Marketing spend is expected to rise for 48 %, while engineering and game development are seen as more optimistic (71 % and 42 %). The survey also highlights a strong appetite for mergers and acquisitions, with 71 % expecting more M&A activity. Advanced integration across multiple functions is viewed as more optimistic (49 %) but limited implementation remains a concern. The data derive from a global sample of gaming CEOs, reflecting perspectives across mobile, PC, console, and various functional departments. The findings suggest a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2025, tempered by supply‑side pressures and marketing challenges.
• 2024 market size: $188bn (+2.1% YoY) Total gamers in 2024 by region (millions): • Public markets: leading public gaming ETFs up 22- • 36% YTD (vs S&P 500 = 21%) Middle East & Africa Venture funding in Q3‘ 24: $517m across 92 deals 559 (funding +1% QoQ, number of deals -14% QoQ) (16%) • Epic sidesteps Apple in the EU, sues Google Europe (454 3,422m • Discord launches Activities ...
Investment activity within the console and PC gaming sectors throughout 2023 reveals a strategic focus on early-stage developers, artificial intelligence integration, and blockchain-enabled platforms. Venture capital firms and strategic corporate investors prioritized studios capable of delivering high-fidelity experiences or innovative user-generated content tools. Andreessen Horowitz emerged as a leading contributor, deploying $82 million across various rounds, highlighted by a $55 million Series A investment in The Believer Company. This trend underscores a broader industry movement toward backing unproven but high-potential studios during their foundational stages. The funding landscape also highlights the significant role of strategic industry players like KRAFTON and specialized funds such as Makers Fund. KRAFTON’s involvement included a notable $30.7 million post-IPO equity injection into People Can Fly, while Makers Fund distributed $22.5 million across multiple early-stage ventures including Noodle Cat Games and World Makers. These investments suggest a dual interest in established mid-tier developers and lean, agile startups focusing on niche PC markets. Blockchain and Web3 gaming remained a resilient segment for capital allocation, particularly through investors like Merit Circle and Polygon. These firms concentrated on seed-stage rounds for developers such as Farcana, which secured $10 million, and Delabs Games. The data indicates that while the broader market faced economic headwinds, specialized sectors involving AI-driven development and decentralized gaming infrastructure continued to attract tens of millions of dollars in capital. Overall, the 2023 investment cycle was defined by a preference for Series A and Seed rounds, signaling a long-term bet on the next generation of console and PC intellectual property.
Thunderful Group’s interim report for the first quarter of 2024 details a period of significant financial decline and aggressive corporate restructuring. Net revenue fell 27.7 percent to 391.7 MSEK, while the group recorded an operating loss (EBIT) of 184.4 MSEK, a sharp reversal from the 19.2 MSEK profit reported in the same period the previous year. This downturn was driven by a 35.5 percent revenue drop in the Games segment and a 25.7 percent decrease in Distribution, largely due to weaker market demand for Nintendo Switch products and the underperformance of the internal title SteamWorld Build. To address these challenges, the group initiated a restructuring program aimed at annual cost savings of 90–110 MSEK. This process involved a 72.4 MSEK write-down of capitalized development costs following the cancellation or divestment of twelve game projects. Strategic shifts include the divestment of the German publishing subsidiary Headup GmbH and the sale of Nordic Game Supply’s assets to reduce net debt. Despite these pressures, the group successfully extended its Nintendo distribution agreement for the Nordics and Baltics through March 2026 and reported 13.9 percent growth in its Amo Toys division. The report covers the group’s global operations with a focus on European and Nordic markets for the period of January to March 2024. Financial data indicates a strained liquidity position, with cash and credit facilities dropping to 130.9 MSEK from 329.3 MSEK year-over-year. Management secured a bank waiver conditional on asset divestments and maintains that current funds are sufficient for continued operations. The overarching strategy moving forward emphasizes a simplified games portfolio, more rigorous project validation, and a balanced risk profile across internal and external development.