We have delivered on our full year 2024 outlook following a strong Q4. Reported revenues grew by 6% year over year in Q4 and 3% for the full year in constant currencies and grew by 15% from Q3 2024. The performance in Q4 was driven by a large extent by Snowprint almost doubling revenues year over year, InnoGames delivering a strong Q4, and PlaySimple growing year over year driven by geographical expansion and new titles. We achieved better traction for profitable UA (user acquisition) spend in seasonally strong Q4, and total UA was up 11% year over year and up 21% from Q3. We invested 40% of total revenues into UA in Q4 taking advantage of a more encouraging marketing environment. UA spend was up from 38% both in Q4 2023 and Q3 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was up 4% year over year and 17% from Q3 driven by the scaling of Snowprint and revenue growth in InnoGames and PlaySimple. We reported a strong margin of 27% in Q4 and 28% for the full year. We generated SEK 327 million in cash from operations in Q4 with a strong cash conversion of 71% for the full year.
Financial highlights Q4
- Net sales increased by 8% to SEK 1,693 (1,571) million year over year (9% organic growth) and were up 6% in constant currencies
- UA spend of SEK 677 (600) million corresponding to 40% (38%) of revenues
- Adjusted EBITDA up by 4% year over year to SEK 455 (439) million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 27% (28%), adjustments included SEK 138 million for M&A transaction costs and revaluation of put/call options
- Reported EBITDA of SEK 317 (420) million and EBIT of SEK 170 (259) million
- Net financial items of SEK -325 (-187) million, including revaluation of performance-based earnout liabilities, driven by underlying exchange rate differences, the outstanding liability of the Class C shares and put/call option revaluation attributable to underlying performance improvement in Snowprint. Interest income was SEK 34 (36) million
- Tax amounted to SEK -87 (-184) million
- Total net income of -242 (-112) million
- Cash flow from operations of SEK 327 (292) million
- Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 3,543 (2,956) million with a cash conversion of 71% for the 12-month period ended 31 December 2024
Financial highlights full year 2024
- Net sales increased by 3% to SEK 6,015 (5,829) million both in reported and constant currencies
- UA spend of SEK 2,222 (2,254) million corresponding to 37% (39%) of revenues
- Adjusted EBITDA of SEK 1,666 (1,548) million up by 8% with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28% (27%)
- Reported EBITDA of SEK 1,476 (1,439) million and EBIT of SEK 901 (885) million
- Net financial items of SEK -719 (-325) million, of which SEK 129 (162) was interest income
- Total net income of SEK -210 (164) million and total basic earnings per share of SEK -1.74 (1.33)
- Cash flow from operations of SEK 1,340 (1,258) million
- Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 3,543 (2,956) million
- Successfully and fully delivered on 2024 outlook
Financial overview
| (SEKm) | Q4 2024 | Q4 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2023 |
| Net sales | 1,693 | 1,571 | 6,015 | 5,829 |
| EBIT | 170 | 259 | 901 | 885 |
| EBITDA | 317 | 420 | 1,476 | 1,439 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 455 | 439 | 1,666 | 1,548 |
| Net income | -242 | -112 | -210 | 164 |
| Cash flow from operations | 327 | 292 | 1,340 | 1,258 |
| Basic earnings per share (SEK) | -2.03 | -0.91 | -1.74 | 1.33 |
| Diluted earnings per share (SEK) | -2.02 | -0.91 | -1.73 | 1.32 |
| Growth | ||||
| Sales growth, % | 8% | 13% | 3% | 5% |
| Changes in FX rates | 2% | 1% | 0% | 5% |
| Sales growth at constant FX | 6% | 12% | 3% | 0% |
| of which organic growth | 9% | 3% | -1% | -2% |
President & CEO's comments
Focused high-quality portfolio delivers strong organic growth and record profits in Q4
I am proud and happy to report a strong Q4. We ended 2024 on a high note and delivered on our full year guidance. In Q4 we also took a significant step towards our future as a leading international gaming group with relevant scale, by signing the agreement to acquire Plarium, the makers of the international mobile hit RAID: Shadow Legends.
We had a very busy period both in terms of overall activity and volume of in-game events. This enabled us to continue building healthy momentum in most of our studios and deliver on the high expectations that we set for ourselves for this year, and for the second half in particular.
We reported strong organic growth of 9% in Q4, with organic sales down -1% for the full year. Our organic sales uplift was driven by an outstanding performance from Snowprint, a very strong quarter from InnoGames and good momentum from PlaySimple, driven by geographical expansion through their localized word games and new casual titles.
This was the first quarter of organic contribution from Snowprint after the acquisition in October 2023, and we continue to be excited and impressed with the quality of the content at a very high pace the studio is delivering.
Sales in constant currencies were up 6% year over year in Q4 and 3% for the full year. Sales were also up 15% sequentially in constant currencies, driven by healthy momentum for our marketing and monetization. This enabled us to deliver sales growth in constant currencies in the middle of our outlook of 1% to 5%.
We continue building positive momentum across the group
PlaySimple revenues grew year over year and were up significantly from Q3 2024, as the localization of Crossword Jam and Word Search Explorer and new game initiatives launched by the studio earlier in the year began to pay off. The strong uplift from Q3 2024 also reflected the change in timing of certain third-party platform revenues between the quarters. Digital ad impression price dynamics continued to be somewhat muted in Q4, and we saw a slightly lower level of uplift in eCPM1 levels after Thanksgiving than in 2023.
InnoGames had an encouraging quarter in Q4 and reported higher sales both year over year and from Q3 2024, driven by strong events in Forge of Empires. The studio successfully improved individual event performance in the quarter, and held one more in-game event compared to Q4 2023. InnoGames' new title Heroes of History reported very encouraging early momentum and is outperforming previously launched new games on a like-for-like basis.
Snowprint's revenues almost doubled year over year in Q4 and grew strongly from Q3 thanks to continued outstanding performance from Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus. The growth reflected a strong schedule of live-ops in the period, combined with a steady stream of additional in-game content. Snowprint also continued to work on a desktop version of the game, which will be launched this year.
Hutch reported lower revenues both year over year and on a sequential basis. The studio continued to add content to F1 Clash and Top Drives during the quarter and is working on a major update for Forza Customs, which was launched in Q4 2023. Shaun Rutland, the co-founder of Hutch, took the position of Executive Chairman of the studio from the start of 2025. He remains connected to the business and is working closely with the leadership team and our Group CPO Oliver Bulloss who has taken up the position as interim co-CEO until a permanent replacement can be found.
Ninja Kiwi's revenues were down in Q4 both year over year and from Q3 2024. Bloons TD 6 received two smaller updates in the quarter while the studio was fully focused on the launch of major paid downloadable content for the game, which became available two days ago. Bloons Card Storm was soft launched in October and the studio continues to evolve the game based on early learnings. Ninja Kiwi also announced two new games during Q4. Fightland will be a massive team battle arena game, and Zombie Assault: Resurgence, which builds on the success of SAS Zombie Assault 4 from 2017.
We report strong profits while continuing to invest in our future through disciplined user acquisition
We invested a total of SEK 677 million in user acquisition (UA) in the quarter, which corresponded to 40% of our total revenues, up from 38% in both Q4 2023 and Q3 2024. This represented an 11% increase year over year and a 21% increase from Q3 2024 in constant currencies, as we saw good opportunities to invest in UA both for our midcore and casual titles. The uplift was relatively evenly split between Snowprint, InnoGames and PlaySimple.
We reported record adjusted EBITDA in the quarter despite our increased user acquisition spend. This was mainly driven by strong mobile and browser revenue growth with a higher volume of, and overall more successful, events in our key games. We also benefited from the Q3 delay in third party revenues that I mentioned earlier, which positively affected our profitability in the quarter.
Our total adjusted EBITDA therefore amounted to SEK 455 million in Q4 and SEK 1,666 million for the full year 2024. This represented a 4% year over year increase in Q4 and an 8% increase for the full year. It is worth noting that we benefited from certain positive effects in Q4 2023, which meant that underlying year over year uplift in profits would have been even stronger.
Our business continued to be highly cash generative, and we achieved a strong cash conversion of 71% for the full year 2024, well above our long-term guidance of 50-60%. This high result reflected positive working capital timing effects and boosts from interest income in the quarter, as well as our disciplined capital allocation, and low CAPEX levels, enabling healthy underlying profit-to-cash conversion. It's worth noting that while the timing effects worked in our favor in Q4 and for the full year, we expect them to fluctuate throughout 2025 and we therefore continue to be comfortable with our long-term range.
Becoming a scaled industry leader with state-of-the art tech and tools
Our results in 2024 demonstrate the strength and expertise of our studios. On the midcore side, we have shown a strong ability to adapt to prevailing market conditions and to push the envelope when it comes to the quality and volume of live-ops and in-game content while maintaining strong marketing discipline. As a result, players have spent more on average in many of our most successful titles. On the casual side, we had to adapt to Google's ad bidding changes and, PlaySimple, responded impressively by adapting several of their hit games to reach new geographical audiences, increasing our user base and future monetization ability.
We now go into an incredibly exciting time for our group. In November 2024 we signed a deal to acquire Plarium, the developers of the global superhit RAID: Shadow Legends. This is a transformative deal that adds one of the world's best evergreen midcore titles to our offering. Plarium also has state-of-the-art tools for marketing and monetizing games. By bringing together MTG and Plarium, we will be able to leverage some of the best gaming tech, tools and knowledge in the industry to help accelerate and drive the performance of our games.
The acquisition will enable us to take a significant leap towards fulfilling our mission to become a leading gaming group with relevant scale. It also propels us toward a unified ecosystem of industry-leading tools, empowering game makers to drive performance and growth.
We expect to close the deal in the next couple of weeks. This moment will mark the starting point of the next chapter in our transformative journey as a group.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. Our goal is to empower our studios to work together in a new way. A way that will continue to enable them to make amazing, popular, games, while making sure that they can benefit from some of the best tools in the industry to monetize their IP's over the long term.
We also continue to execute on the share repurchase program approved by the 2024 AGM. We will also seek a new share repurchase mandate from the 2025 AGM.
Thank you for following our progress. I look forward to sharing further news and updates with you going forward.
Maria Redin
Group President & CEO, Modern Times Group MTG AB
1) Effective cost per thousand impressions
2024 outlook delivered
MTG's outlook for 2024 was for reported full year sales growth to be within the range of 1 to 5% on a currency adjusted basis. The outlook for reported adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year was between 26% and 29%. MTG has delivered on this outlook and reported sales growth of 3% on a currency adjusted basis and a 28% adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year 2024.
Our aim is to present the new MTG to our investors and other stakeholders during a Capital Markets Day, which we now expect to take place in Q3 2025.
Shareholder information
MTG's Annual General Meeting 2025
The Annual General Meeting will be held on 15 May 2025 in Stockholm. Shareholders wishing to have matters considered at the Annual General Meeting should submit their proposals in writing either by post to the "Company Secretary", Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ), Annual General Meeting, P.O. Box 2094, SE-103 13 Stockholm, Sweden or by email to agm@mtg.com at least seven weeks before the Annual General Meeting in order for the proposal to be included in the notice to the meeting. Further details on how and when to register will be published in advance of the meeting.
Nomination Committee ahead of Annual General Meeting 2025
In accordance with the resolution by the Annual General Meeting of MTG shareholders regarding the procedure for the Nomination Committee, a Nomination Committee has been convened to prepare proposals for the 2025 Annual General Meeting.
The Nomination Committee comprises:
- Christian Rauda, appointed by EHM Holding GmbH
- Klaus Roehrig, appointed by Active Ownership Corporation
- Malin Björkmo, appointed by Handelsbanken Fonder AB and
- Simon Duffy, the Chairman of the Board
In line with past practice, the members of the Committee have appointed Christian Rauda, representing the largest shareholder on the last business day of August 2024, as the Committee Chairman.
Please see the following section on MTG.com for information about the work of the Nomination Committee:
Shareholders wishing to propose candidates for election to the MTG Board of Directors should submit their proposals in writing to agm@mtg.com or to the "Company Secretary", Modern Times Group MTG AB, Box 2094, SE-103 13 Stockholm, Sweden.
Financial calendar
| Item | Date |
| Q1 2025 Financial Results report | 29 April 2025 |
| Annual General Meeting 2025 | 15 May 2025 |
| Q2 & Half Year 2025 Financial Results report | 18 July 2025 |
| Q3 & 9 Months 2025 Financial Results report | 23 October 2025 |
Questions?
Anton Gourman, VP Communications
Direct: +46 73 661 8488, anton.gourman@mtg.com
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Conference call
MTG will host a livestream and conference call at 10.00 CET today, on 6 February 2025. The call will be held in English.
How to join:
- To participate via livestream, please use this link.
- To join via phone, please register using this link. After you've registered, you'll receive the dial-in number and conference ID to access the teleconference.
- You can ask questions via phone during the teleconference or by using the livestream Q&A tool.
Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ) - Reg no: 556309-9158 - Phone: +46 (0) 8-562 000 50
MTG (Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ)) (www.mtg.com) is an international mobile gaming group that owns and operates gaming studios with popular global IPs across a wide range of casual and mid-core genres. The group is focused on accelerating portfolio company growth and supporting founders and entrepreneurs. MTG is an active driver of gaming industry consolidation and a strategic acquirer of gaming companies around the world. We are born in Sweden but have an international culture and global footprint. Our shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm ("MTGA" and "MTGB").
This information is information that Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 7:30 CET on February 6, 2025.
This interim report contains statements concerning, among other things, MTG's financial condition and results of operations that are forward-looking in nature. Such statements are not historical facts but, rather, represent MTG's future expectations. MTG believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions; however, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of important factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Such important factors include but may not be limited to MTG's market position; growth in the gaming industry; and the effects of competition and other economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting the business of MTG, its group companies and the gaming industry in general. Forward-looking statements apply only as of the date they were made, and, other than as required by applicable law, MTG undertakes no obligation to update any of them in the light of new information or future events.
