Q1 2022 sales drop for Take-Two Interactive

Take-Two Interactive has reported its financial results for the first quarter, showing a slight drop, though not as sharp as the one seen in the previous quarter.

For the three-month period ending on June 30, 2021, revenue saw a decline of 2 percent to $813 million. Net bookings fell to $711 million, a drop of 29 percent. However, these numbers are still ahead of the company’s forecast, which was $780 million in revenue and $675 million for net bookings.

Net income for the entire quarter was $152 million, up by 72 percent year-on-year. Take-Two explained that it’s likely that this rise is all down to the portfolio of Rockstar Games titles: GTA 5, GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Red Dead Online. However, it added that Borderlands 3 played a part in this too.

This comparison is also pretty tough because this is when lockdowns were still driving a lot of sales in 2020, leading to inflation that’s hard to measure up against.

GTA 5 has now topped over 150 million units sold, and the audience playing GTA Online is up by 72 percent on last year. Similarly, Red Dead Redemption 2 has hit 38 million units sold, and the player base for Red Dead Online is up by 18 percent on the same period two years ago.

NBA 2K21 and Civilization 6 have shipped over 11 million units each, with NBA 2K21 outpacing Civilization 6 at this point. The strategy game has a bundled edition out this year, though it’s unlikely it will lead to that many more sales.

Take-Two added that there will be an announcement for a new 2K franchise later this month. However, there’s no indication if this is one of the titles that was delayed out of 2020.

Looking forward, Take-Two expects to see revenues down in the next fiscal quarter between $740 and $790 million, a drop of roughly 12 percent. Net bookings are expected to fall by 15 percent to between $815 and $865 million. Finally, net income is expected to half to between $41 and $53 million.

Despite this rather gloomy outlook, the publisher is bringing 20 new games to market this year and expects to set some new company records in 2023. Time will tell if the games that come out this year pay off and generate those sought-after sales.