Playtika : PLTK Q1 2026 Earnings Script Final
PLTK
Published on 05/07/2026 at 09:34 am EDT
Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us today for the first quarter 2026 earnings call for Playtika Holding Corp. Joining me on the call today is Robert Antokol, co-founder, President, and CEO of Playtika.
I would like to remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, the Company's anticipated future revenue and operating performance, including expected marketing and investment activity, and the impact of AI on the Company's business and industry. These statements and other comments are not a guarantee of future performance, but rather are subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. These forward-looking statements apply as of today, and you should not rely on them as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to update these statements after this call.
We have posted an accompanying slide deck to our investor relations website which contains information on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures, and we will also post our prepared remarks immediately following the call.
For a more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the SEC. As a reminder, we will not be taking questions related to the strategic alternatives review. With that, I will now turn the call over to Robert.
Good morning and thank you for joining us.
This was a great start of the year, and we are seeing momentum across the portfolio.
Our largest franchises continue to execute at scale, we are allocating investments
toward the highest return opportunities, and DTC continues to grow as a key driver
for unit economics.
With that context, the headline for me is Disney Solitaire. What we are seeing is
outstanding, and it's rare at this scale. Disney Solitaire has scaled faster than any
title in our fifteen-year history and continues to outperform expectations. Our
SuperPlay studio has taken world-class IP, built a strong game economy around it,
and delivered extremely well. We are investing heavily in user acquisition behind
Disney Solitaire, and the returns we are seeing support that level of investment. It
is some of the best ROI we have seen in the portfolio.
This is not a lucky outcome. SuperPlay is now operating at a scale that matters for
Playtika, and it is validating the strategy behind the acquisition: investing in the
right teams and backing them with the capital and operating discipline to build large,
long-lasting franchises that compound cash flow over time. Disney Solitaire is the
latest example of that, and we believe it will not be the last.
And it is not only SuperPlay. The core business is executing, and we are seeing
quarter over quarter stabilization across the organic portfolio. We are investing
behind our winners and stepping back where the return profile is not there. That
discipline is showing up in the revenue mix. Each year, more of our revenue comes
from long-life casual games with broad reach. DTC has become a core part of how
we run the business, improving unit economics, and supporting a more durable cash
flow profile.
Casual is now 76% of our business and that transition is largely complete. We are a
casual mobile gaming company with a strong social casino business that generates
strong cash flow. Our casual franchises are in leadership positions with broader
reach and longer runway, and we compete in categories where scale and winner take
most dynamics are more pronounced. With SuperPlay serving as a growth engine,
our portfolio remains anchored in scaled franchises with competitive advantages,
while we continue to manage our slot titles in a fragmented landscape.
And the mix shift doesn't mean we have taken our eye off social casino. We are
managing it with a clear goal, to maximize lifetime value, stay disciplined on returns,
and improve stability where we can. On Slotomania, we are encouraged by the start
of the year. Last quarter, we told you to expect quarter over quarter improvement in
Q1, and we delivered it. Slotomania grew 4.0% quarter over quarter in the first
quarter. This is a mature, competitive category, and we are not making a forward
promise of continued growth from here. Flattening the decline and showing early
stability is an important milestone, and it matters for the overall durability of the
portfolio.
On DTC, we have grown close to $1.2 billion annual run-rate. Few companies in
mobile gaming operate at our scale. And this matters beyond the margin benefit.
When you own the transaction, you improve unit economics and gain more direct
tools to engage and serve players over time, which supports durability. Every
quarter, this becomes more central to how we operate.
Our results give me confidence. SuperPlay is scaling, DTC is compounding, and
this portfolio is in better shape and on a stronger direction. We are executing with
discipline.
Tae will take you through the details. Thank you.
Thank you, Robert, and good morning.
I'm going to start with the financial highlights for the quarter, and then I'll step back
and walk through the key themes that matter for how to interpret our performance
and the business.
In the first quarter, we delivered total revenue of $744.7 million, up 9.7%
sequentially and 5.5% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA was $125.2 million,
representing a margin of 16.8%. Importantly, the core business excluding SuperPlay
continues to generate meaningful Adjusted EBITDA and cash flow, and the
consolidated margin reflects the planned investment cadence at SuperPlay. We
expect SuperPlay to start driving positive Adjusted EBITDA in Q2. Net loss was
$(57.5) million, and Adjusted Net Income was $13.6 million. Our Adjusted Net
Income excludes the GAAP impact of incremental contingent consideration, which
increased this quarter as SuperPlay is tracking ahead of the performance assumptions
underlying our last reported results. Our DTC business set another record in the first
quarter. We delivered DTC revenue of $291.8 million, up 16.7% sequentially, and
62.8% year over year.
The headline is simple: SuperPlay is scaling, and the core is generating meaningful
Adjusted EBITDA and cash flow. With that context, there are three points that
matter for how to think about our results and the business.
First, the core is durable, and we are focused on games with scale.
In mobile gaming, the portfolio naturally concentrates around the titles with scale
and community, and that shows up in our market positions. Across our largest
franchises, we hold the number one or top-three position in multiple core categories,
and that's the backbone of our strategy: focusing capital on games that can be
winners in their respective genres. In "Tabletop" games, we occupy all three top
positions, with Disney Solitaire, Solitaire Grand Harvest, and Domino Dreams.
Within Solitaire specifically, Disney Solitaire and Solitaire Grand Harvest together
represent category-leading scale, giving us a leading position in the sub-genre.
Across our casual franchises, we hold leadership positions in large, enduring
categories. June's Journey is the number one title in Hidden Objects, Bingo Blitz is
the number one Bingo game, and Dice Dreams is a top-three Coin Looter game. In
Poker, WSOP is the number one poker title. Slotomania remains a core legacy title,
providing scale and stability as we focus incremental capital on titles with winner-
take-most dynamics.
Second, Q1 margins reflect SuperPlay investment cadence, not structural pressure.
Our In-App purchase business model is well-established and repeatable: we acquire
players, convert them to payers, and scale live games supported by a durable
community. When that community is in place, these titles generate cash over a long
period of time, and that's the playbook we've successfully repeated for fifteen years.
SuperPlay is in a rapidly scaling phase, and our marketing spend is intentionally
weighted toward the first half of the year. As a result, the near-term margin and
consolidated Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 reflect timing, not the long-term earnings and
cash flow potential of the studio.
Third, AI is a tailwind for scaled operators.
Investors have asked whether AI changes the competitive dynamics in mobile
gaming. Our view is that it's a tailwind. Content creation has never been the barrier
to entry in our industry, the hard part has always been building and operating a live
game at scale. Live ops cadence, retention and monetization systems, and the
communities that keep players engaged over time. AI is helping accelerate how we
build and run those systems. If targeting and optimization improve, companies with
scale, data, and operating discipline should benefit. But it doesn't change the
fundamentals, you still need product-market fit, and you still need to allocate user
acquisition dollars. AI will let strong operators do more with the same, or fewer
resources, and we intend to be one of them.
Now, let's turn to the portfolio, starting with performance in our top three revenue
titles for the quarter, Bingo Blitz, Disney Solitaire, and June's Journey.
Bingo Blitz delivered $153.7 million of revenue this quarter, down (3.0)%
sequentially and (5.4)% year over year. Importantly, we believe this does not reflect
a change in the underlying strength of the franchise. Bingo Blitz remains the number
one Bingo title worldwide across iOS and Google Play and continues to operate as
a category leader in a winner-take-most market. While the quarter reflected a slower
start to the year, the underlying economics remained resilient due to the strong
growth of Bingo Blitz's DTC business. As we've noted before, DTC is a meaningful
lever for Bingo's economics, and that mix shift continues to support the financial
profile of the franchise.
Disney Solitaire generated $123.3 million in revenue, up 72.1% sequentially. The
key takeaway is the speed and consistency of that scale. Disney Solitaire is growing
faster than any title in our history. The combination of a proven scaling engine and
Disney's brand reach expands the top of the funnel meaningfully. Based on what
we are seeing today, we believe the franchise still has room to grow from here.
June's Journey delivered $76.0 million in revenue, up 8.7% sequentially and 10.4%
year over year. It was the best quarter for the studio since Q2 2024. More
importantly, this is a clear category winner. The leadership matters because it gives
the franchise room to keep monetizing, not just sustaining, as we keep tightening
LiveOps and expanding mix levers like DTC where appropriate. And that's why we
are excited about the runway. We see June's Journey as a title that can become a $1
million a day game over time, given its leadership position, durability, and the
monetization potential that still sits in this franchise.
Let's turn to specific line items in our P&L.
Cost of Revenue was $192.2 million, down (2.6)% year over year. Lower platform
fees from the continued growth of our DTC business provided a benefit, which was
partially offset by royalty expenses.
R&D was $98.0 million, down (5.6)% year over year, driven by lower headcount
and reduced outsourcing spend as we streamlined our cost structure, partially offset
by severance related to workforce reduction.
Sales & Marketing was $360.6 million, up 32.7% year over year, driven primarily
by incremental performance marketing spend for our SuperPlay games. As we
move through the year, we expect spending to normalize from the Q1 peak and step
down sequentially, consistent with the cadence we've discussed in prior periods.
G&A was $143.5 million, up 120.1% year over year, driven primarily by the GAAP
impact of incremental contingent consideration. Excluding that item, G&A would
have been $48.5 million, reflecting lower share-based compensation versus the
comparable period. As a reminder, contingent consideration expense from this past
quarter is a non-cash fair-value adjustment that runs through GAAP results. It can
fluctuate from quarter to quarter, and is excluded from Adjusted EBITDA and
Adjusted Net Income.
Average Daily Paying Users reached 387K, up 8.4% sequentially and down (0.8)%
year over year. Average Daily Active Users reached 8.6 million, up 8.9%
sequentially and down (4.4)% year over year. Monthly Active Users totaled 30.1
million, underscoring the scale of our global player community. ARPDAU
increased 1.1% sequentially and 8.0% year over year.
Turning to the balance sheet. As of March 31st, we had approximately $779.2
million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Since then, we've
paid $461 million to the former shareholders of SuperPlay as an earnout payment.
We remain focused on maximizing cash flow and preserving liquidity, and we've
taken actions to prioritize balance sheet flexibility, including suspending our
quarterly dividend. From here, we are actively evaluating options to further
strengthen our capital structure and extend our maturity runway. Addressing our
maturity profile and ensuring ample liquidity is a top priority for management, and
we are working deliberately toward the best long-term solution.
Finally, guidance. We are raising our revenue outlook for the year from $2.7 billion
to $2.8 billion to $2.75 billion to $2.85 billion. SuperPlay is performing ahead of
plan, and we are also seeing better than expected performance from the core
portfolio.
On Adjusted EBITDA, we are raising our Adj. EBITDA range from $730 million to
$770 million to $750 million to $790 million. At the same time, we want to be clear
about how we are managing this. We are not optimizing the business to harvest
near-term Adj. EBITDA, at the expense of long-term value. We are managing
performance carefully and intentionally to preserve the option to reinvest
incremental dollars in the business in the second half, whether that's user acquisition,
or R&D, while still maintaining discipline on margins and cash generation.
Said differently, our updated guidance ranges reflect strong execution, but they also
reflect a deliberate choice to keep flexibility. If the opportunities are there, we want
the ability to press our advantage and invest, rather than lock ourselves into a single
"maximize EBITDA" path.
We entered 2026 with momentum in the business, and the first quarter gave us more
reasons for conviction.
We'd be happy to take your questions.
Disclaimer
Playtika Holding Corp. published this content on May 07, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on May 07, 2026 at 13:33 UTC.