Video game companies have had a tumultuous year through 2020, but Zynga has had a more tumultuous year than most, it seems. The mobile game publisher and developer has now issued its financial results for the past year. Like most, Zynga has had a strikingly successful year despite the pandemic, even breaking its annual revenue records. Unlike most, however, Zynga has also managed to report record net losses for the same year.
More specifically, Zynga reported that it earned an impressive $1.97 billion in revenue for the 2020 fiscal year. Its net losses, on the other hand, were $429.4 million. Revenue increased 49% over the numbers from last year. The losses were near double Zynga's previous worst year on record when it lost $226 million in 2014. In this case, however, Zynga is likely perfectly happy with both its revenue and its losses.
That's because Zynga's losses in 2020 are attributable to a series of acquisitions that the company has made relatively recently. In 2020 alone, Zynga has acquired Peak, developer of Toy Blast, for $1.8 billion, and Rollic, developer of Go Knots 3D, for $180 million. Four other significant acquisitions have been made since 2017, and 18 just in the past decade. Zynga's rapidly expanding, with its biggest acquisition yet being made in 2020.
As such, Zynga isn't much concerned with its losses. In fact, it's saying to expect another year of impressive growth in 2021, predicting a 32% increase in revenue. It also says that it will continue to aggressively pursue the acquisition of further "talented" mobile game studios and technologies in the next year. Zynga, the Words With Friends developer, is in a better place than ever.