HIGHLIGHTS
- Between March and May, Playrix had 165 million downloads from its games
- In the first five months of the year, sales stood at almost $1 billion
- Gaming has been one area where coronaviral lockdowns are used
One of its founders said that one mobile game developer in Russia recorded a number of gambling profits while the Coronavirus lockdowns were happening worldwide. In the period mid-March through mid-May, Playrix has been located in Dublin since 2014. It almost doubled the number of games in two months prior to the pandemic, cofounder Igor Bukhman said.
He said the company's turnover jumped in the last two months to $46 crores (around Rs. 3,475 crores) and amounted to close to $100 crores for the first five months, approximately Rs. 7,556 crores.
"In this period we have been able to get substantially more new users," Bukhman said to Reuters. "It is difficult to determine exactly how much lockdowns caused this income, but in the last few months we have record numbers."
Gaming was one area where coronavirus lockdowns were taken advantage of. The Sensor Tower data analytics firm has demonstrated that the global downloads of mobile games rose 39% in February and China accounted for a significant share of the increase.
While lockdowns are being lifted, and businesses are reopening, the impact of the Playrix coronavirus pandemic is starting to fade, Bukhman expects revenues "strongly above" this year's 2019 level.
The most popular Playrix games including "Gardenscapes" feature simulation and challenge users to do various tasks.
In 2004 when they were students in Russian city of Vologda 400 kilometers northeast of Moscow, Igor Bukhman and his younger brother, Dmitry, founded Playrix. Playrix.
Playrix does not plan immediately to float shares even when he could, Igor Bukhman said, do so in the future.
Bukhman said it is hoping to complete more acquisitions in 2020, which has acquired 12 additional gaming studios in recent years.
