Zynga is now the largest U.S. mobile videogame company, after games made by the Turkish publisher it bought in June propelled it into the number one spot in July.
The newly acquired Toon Blast game made by Peak, the studio it bought for $1.8 billion, finished 12th on the iPhone for July, which was enough to help parent company Zynga (ticker: ZNGA) take the number one spot for market share on Google Play (GOOGL) and Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, according to a Tuesday note from Cowen analyst Doug Cruetz. Zynga advanced to the largest U.S. publisher from the number four spot in June, dethroning Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) King, which makes the popular Candy Crush game.
Most of the large U.S. publishers aside from Zynga and rival Glu Mobile (GLUU) have not captured a mobile videogame market share. Cruetz wrote that his team’s analysis of July’s mobile gaming trends suggests Zynga and Glu are on track to support his earnings guidance.
Activision has seen some success with its Call of Duty Mobile, but Cruetz’s research said that it fell one spot to the seventh most popular game. Nine of the top 20 iPhone games in July came from closely held companies, and all of them use the freemium model to generate revenue.
Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) sought to change the fact that many U.S. videogame publishers don’t have large mobile game divisions Tuesday, announcing that it was acquiring closely held Playdots for $90 million in cash, and $102 million in stock. Playdots makes the popular Dots franchise, which the company said has been downloaded more than 100 million times, with Two Dots responsible for 80 million of those downloads. The company said the deal should close in the third calendar quarter of 2020 and that Playdots CEO and former King executive Nir Efrat will remain in charge of the 70-person strong operation.
According to Cruetz’s research Take-Two ranked forty-fifth in mobile gaming market share, down from thirty-fourth in June. The company doesn’t currently have any top 20 titles on the iPhone, iPad, or Google Play store.
Closely held Epic Games, which makes the popular Fortnite battle royale game ratcheted up its fight with Apple over App Store fees this week. According to Cruetz’s research Fortnite is the second most popular iPad app behind Roblox, made by the publisher of the same name. Epic has sold equity stakes in the founder-controlled company to the likes of Tencent Holdings and Sony.
Zynga shares closed up 0.6% to $9.42 Tuesday, as Glu Mobile advanced 6.2% to $8.23 and Activision gained 1.4% to $83.13. Take-Two stock rose 1% to $176.98 in Tuesday trading.
Write to Max A. Cherney at max.cherney@barrons.com
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Zynga Is Largest Mobile Game Maker by Market Share - Barron's
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