At the dawn of the social gaming era, Zynga was the undisputed king of the genre. Between breakout hits like Farmville and Zynga Poker, the California-based company was raking in cash hand over fist.
Unfortunately, the company’s fortunes turned south as consumer tastes changed and chaos reigned in its e-suites. Despite some extremely rough times in 2016, however, the venerable social gaming shop is starting to move in a positive direction.
Earlier this week, Zynga released its financial reports for Q1 2017 and it contained solid revenue growth. The company’s revenue clocked in at $194.3 million, that up 4 percent from the same period last year.
Good news was in abundance on the company’s mobile side as revenue for that division was up a whopping 19 percent over the previous year. It’s total mobile audience also took a solid leap, growing 16 percent to 18 million daily users. Overall, mobile revenue accounts for about 83 percent of the company’s total revenue.
Much of the credit for Zynga’s changing fortunes is being given to the company’s current CEO, former EA executive Frank Gibeau.
In a call to investors, as reported on by GamesIndustryBiz.com, Gibeau said this was just the beginning of Zynga’s improved fortunes:
We’re in a turnaround, so you kind of put one foot in front of the next and drive improvements across the board. I think Q1 is really starting to show us pick up speed and momentum.
Gibeau also reminded investors that developing an audience for a social game takes time and that launching new products in a marketplace as competitive as this one is a very difficult task.