Historic milestone Q1 defined by closing of transformative acquisition of Plarium and strong organic growth1 on the back of scaled-up marketing for key titles and new games. Plarium was consolidated from 1 February and reported revenues were therefore up 77% year over year in Q1. Our original studios continued to successfully scale profitable marketing, with UA spend up 26% year over year for our original studios in Q1. Total user acquisition spend (UA) represented 38% of net sales in Q1. Total adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 616 million in Q1, a 56% increase year over year in, with an operating margin of 24%.
Financial highlights Q1
- Net sales increased by 77% to SEK 2,557 (1,447) million year over year (6% organic growth) and were up 79% in constant currencies
- UA spend of SEK 960 (527) million corresponding to 38% (36%) of revenues and up 26% year over year for our original studios
- Adjusted EBITDA up by 56% year over year to SEK 616 (396) million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24% (27%), adjustments included SEK 14 million for M&A transaction costs and revaluation of put/call options
- Reported EBITDA of SEK 594 (377) million and EBIT of SEK 290 (236) million driven by increased amortization levels of intangible assets arising from the acquisition of Plarium, primarily related to RAID: Shadow Legends
- Net financial items of SEK -85 (-157) million, driven mainly by MTG's outstanding liability of the Class C shares held as part of the PlaySimple transaction. Net interest amounted to SEK -19 (33) million
- Tax amounted to SEK -140 (-111) million
- Total net income of 65 (-31) million
- Non-cash impairment of SEK 675 million of MTG's shareholding in Monumental2 impacting OCI due to lower-than-expected performance in the company combined with lowered future expectations
- Cash flow from operations of SEK 176 (293) million driven by changes in working capital, including a non-cash change in deferred revenues at the time of the acquisition of Plarium. Cash conversion of 56% for the 12-month period ended 31 March 2025
- Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 2,176 (3,332) million with a net financial debt of SEK 2,493 million
- MTG's has set November 13 as the new date for the announcement of our financial results for Q3 and nine-month period of 2025
Financial overview
| (SEKm) | Q1 2025 | Q1 2024 | FY 2024 |
| Continuing operations | |||
| Net sales | 2,557 | 1,447 | 6,015 |
| EBIT | 290 | 236 | 901 |
| EBITDA | 594 | 377 | 1,476 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 616 | 396 | 1,666 |
| Net income | 65 | -31 | -210 |
| Cash flow from operations | 176 | 293 | 1,340 |
| Basic earnings per share (SEK) | 0.55 | -0.26 | -1.74 |
| Diluted earnings per share (SEK) | - | -0.26 | -1.74 |
| Growth | |||
| Sales growth, % | 77% | 11% | 3% |
| Changes in FX rates | -3% | 1% | 0% |
| Sales growth at constant FX | 79% | 10% | 3% |
| of which organic growth | 6% | 4% | -1% |
1 Organic growth is defined as revenues from the studios MTG owned throughout the whole of 2024 and is calculated in constant currencies
2 MTG owns 30% of the shares and less than 20% of the votes in Monumental, and reports this investment as a financial asset. MTG received the shares as payment for Monumental's acquisition of Kongregate in February 2024.
President & CEO's comments
Strong Q1 kicks off 2025 with 6% organic growth, healthy margins and closed transformative deal
The first quarter of 2025 is one of the most significant milestone periods in our history. The closing of the transformative acquisition of Plarium significantly enhances our scale as a combined gaming group, nearly doubling our total revenues. The closing expands our portfolio with both high quality games, headlined by RAID: Shadow Legends, and effective commercial tools, including a best-in-class publishing platform. In addition, the consolidation expands our pipeline of new games for 2025 and 2026, which is a key element in our future growth journey.
It also makes me very happy to report strong organic year over year growth of 6%, together with scaled up marketing in our original studios in Q1. This, combined with a healthy operating margin in the quarter, reflects the strength of our operating model and quality of our studios.
We kicked off the integration work immediately after closing the Plarium transaction and are now evaluating how the combination of ours and Plarium's tech and tools can help us accelerate our strategic execution and delivery. I am convinced that MTG and Plarium are set to be better together, and I am also excited about the prospects of what we can achieve over the medium and long term as a scaled gaming group.
Good operational momentum in Q1
Our good operational momentum continued throughout Q1 and into April. This sets us up to continue scaling marketing in Q2, and to deliver profitable organic growth in 2025 and beyond. Our studios remain focused on delivering effective live-ops and engaging content in our established evergreen titles, combined with an ambitious agenda to launch and scale new games to expand our portfolio over time.
Our organic revenue growth in the quarter was driven by the ongoing traction in our Word Games, continued strong growth in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus and our new title Heroes of History, which has been resonating with players and scaling rapidly with encouraging KPIs. RAID: Shadow Legends, now our largest title, had an encouraging March with strong event performance.
Total net sales were up 77% year over year in Q1 following the consolidation of Plarium. Our top line results in the quarter were negatively affected by currency headwinds from the weakening US dollar and we therefore reported 79% year on year sales growth in constant currencies.
Front-loaded marketing investments driving growth
We invested a total of SEK 960 million in user acquisition in Q1, corresponding to 38% of our revenues. UA spend was up 26% year over year for our original studios, as we continued to invest at healthy return levels after the seasonally strong Q4 last year.
The biggest drivers of our year over year increase in UA were the geographical expansion of our word games, our new well-performing strategy and city building title Heroes of History and Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus. We are very happy with this performance and will continue to invest in growth while maintaining our disciplined approach to return on ad spend.
We reported SEK 616 million of total adjusted EBITDA in Q1. This performance reflected the consolidation of Plarium and the increased user acquisition levels in three of our studios mentioned above. We therefore delivered an operating margin of 24% in the first quarter.
We reported a cash conversion of 56% for the 12-month period ending on 31 March 2025, which was within our current long-term guided range of 50%-60%. The result mainly reflected negative working capital in the quarter, a non-cash change in deferred revenues at the time of the Plarium acquisition and higher tax payments.
We are building a scaled, leading ecosystem for game makers
Thanks to the Plarium acquisition, we are now the largest listed mobile gaming company in Europe and in the top-10 list of mobile developers in the West. Part of our vision and strategy as a gaming group is to build a synergetic common layer of shared proprietary tech and tools. The acquisition of Plarium enables us to accelerate this journey by adding strong proprietary technologies like GoGame, which is Plarium's marketing tools and tech, and Plarium Play, a strong publishing platform, to our portfolio.
We have already made good progress on evaluating areas of collaboration and the potential for acceleration and commercial synergies and increased efficiency that comes from our combined portfolio of tools and tech. Our firm belief is that we will be a better group together, and our ambition is to accelerate our overall commercial evolution and help our studios to work closer together.
We also continue to explore future M&A. As we scale and evolve, we can offer new studios more opportunities, more support and more knowledge when they join MTG. I want MTG to be a place that game makers are proud to call home and a group that attracts new, exciting talents. At the same time, we have a firm M&A framework in place, and we will continue to be highly selective in any future deals.
Last, but not least, we continue to execute on the share buyback program that runs until the end of April this year. Our Board of Directors is also seeking a new share repurchase mandate from the 2025 AGM in May.
Thank you for following our journey. We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us in 2025 and I look forward to continue updating you on our progress as we continue to transform MTG for the future.
Maria Redin
Group President & CEO, Modern Times Group MTG AB
2025 outlook
MTG's outlook for the full year 2025 is for organic sales (sales from MTG's businesses prior to the acquisition of Plarium, in constant currencies) to be within the range of 3% to 7%.
MTG intends to continue driving organic growth through continued scaled, but disciplined, marketing. The group therefore expects its full year, total reported adjusted EBITDA margin (including Plarium) to be within the range of 21% to 24%. The final margin will depend on the returns on, and levels of investment in, the marketing of new and established games, combined with the success of our geographical expansion.
Shareholder information
MTG's Annual General Meeting 2025
The Annual General Meeting will be held on 15 May 2025 in Stockholm.
All information relating to the Annual General Meeting, including the notice, the Nomination Committee's proposals and related materials has been published at www.mtg.com
Financial calendar
| Item | Date |
| Annual General Meeting 2025 | 15 May 2025 |
| Q2 & Half Year 2025 Financial Results report | 18 July 2025 |
| Q3 & 9 Months 2025 Financial Results report Please note that this is the new date for the Q3 report | 13 November 2025 |
Questions?
Anton Gourman, VP Communications
Direct: +46 73 661 8488, anton.gourman@mtg.com
Follow us: mtg.com / LinkedIn
Conference call
MTG will host a livestream and conference call at 10.00 CET today, on 29 April 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 April 29, 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.
For more information:
Anton Gourman, VP Communications and IR
Direct: +46 73 661 8488, anton.gourman@mtg.com
Follow us: mtg.com / LinkedIn
About MTG
MTG (Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ)) (www.mtg.com) is an international gaming group that owns and operates gaming studios with popular global IPs in casual and midcore segments. The group is focused on accelerating growth through collaboration and a growing commercial tech and tools ecosystem that game makers can leverage to drive performance. MTG is an active participant in the ongoing consolidation of the gaming industry and has a continuous focus on accretive M&A. MTG's HQ can be found in Sweden, but the group has an international culture and a global footprint. MTG's shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the tickers MTGA and MTGB.
