Take-Two Interactive coasts to $831.3 million in Q2 2020 revenue as fans flock to online games

Take-Two Interactive reported that revenue for its first fiscal quarter (the second calendar quarter) ended June 30 rose 54% from a year ago to $831.3 million as fans played online games during the pandemic. The results for profits and revenues beat Wall Street’s expectations.

Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, and NBA 2K20 all contributed to huge sales for the company in a quarter when it didn’t launch any new games. Other contributors included Borderlands 3, Sid Meyer’s Civilization VI, WWE, The Outer Worlds, and Social Point’s mobile games. In after-hours trading, Take-Two’s stock is up 2.2% to $167.8 a share.

The publishing company reported digital revenue increased 70% to $726.2 million, compared to $427.8 million in the same period a year ago. Take-Two emphasizes that COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders led to increased engagement and spending in its games.

On a non-GAAP basis, Take-Two reported earnings per share of $2.30 and raised full-year guidance as well, said Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen, in an email to GamesBeat. Analysts expected the company to report quarterly earnings of $1.53 a share on sales of $821.6 million. In the same period a year ago, the company posted earnings of 27 cents a share on sales of $422.2 million.

Above: Red Dead Online gets a major overhaul.

Image Credit: Rockstar Games

Take-Two chief executive officer Strauss Zelnick said in a statement, “Fiscal 2021 is off to a terrific start with first-quarter operating results that significantly exceeded our expectations, including fiscal first-quarter records for GAAP net revenue and net bookings….As a result of our better-than-expected first-quarter operating results and increased forecast for the balance of the year, we are raising our fiscal 2021 outlook, which is poised to be another great year for Take-Two.

The company said it has the “strongest development pipeline in the history of the company,” but, of course, everybody wants to know when Grand Theft Auto VI is going to debut. And Take-Two isn’t saying anything about that. Take-Two said employees are still working from home, though some offices are opening on a voluntary basis.

For the second fiscal quarter ended September 30, Take-Two expects GAAP revenue to be $750 million to $800 million, with net income at $98 million, or 85 cents a share, to $110 million, or 96 cents a share.