Ubisoft boasted its biggest quarter ever yesterday. The third quarter of the company’s fiscal year 2020-2021 saw Ubisoft breaking records with €965.1 million of IFRS 15 sales (a 131.9% increase over last year’s third quarter) and €1,001 million of net bookings (an increase of 119.7% over last year’s third quarter); the latter also exceeded company expectations, which had been set between €860 million and €960 million.
Of course, the many successful releases of this quarter (Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortal: Fenyx Rising) clearly played an important role in the record sales.
However, Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet also remarked that the publisher has successfully harnessed the continued success of the Nintendo Switch console.
The quarter was marked by the success of Just Dance 2021 and excellent reviews for Immortal Fenyx Rising and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The latter delivered record sales and ranked, with Watch Dogs: Legion, among the top four best sellers on the new generation consoles. Our back-catalog also turned in a remarkable performance, with record momentum for our Assassin’s Creed titles, solid growth of the Far Cry franchise and strong increase in engagement and revenues for the The Crew brand and our Free-to-Play game Brawlhalla. We’re also reaping the benefits of the Switch’s huge success and our position as leading third-party publisher on the platform thanks to, among others, our Just Dance games and Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. The depth and breadth of our catalog, which goes beyond the brands mentioned, provides us with ever-greater visibility and continues to be a strong driver of profitability.
It is unclear whether this will drive Ubisoft to invest more in Nintendo Switch ports or even major productions such as a sequel to the popular Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. The original launched in September 2017 to great success and recently there have been rumors of a sequel in the works, though nothing has been announced as of yet.
