- Games Workshop revealed its pre-tax profits jumped by a third to £126.8m
- Video game Space Marine 2 sold two million copies within a day of its launch
Games Workshop has recorded its strongest ever first-half result, as demand for the Warhammer brand continues to go from strength to strength.
The tabletop games maker, which recently joined the FTSE 100, revealed its pre-tax profits jumped by a third to a forecast-beating £126.8million in the six months ending 1 December.
Its turnover rose by 20.9 per cent to £299.5million, as sales to trade customers soared 21.3 per cent to £165.7million, and the group secured record retail store orders in the UK, North America and Continental Europe.
Revenue was boosted by the release of the video game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 helping to more than double Games Workshop’s licensing income from £12.1million to £30.1million.
Space Marine 2, which Saber Interactive developed, sold two million copies within a day of its launch and five million by the end of November.
Games Workshop also enjoyed healthy demand for new editions of its Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team wargames.
Performance: Games Workshop has recorded its strongest first-half result amid continued bumper demand for Warhammer miniatures
‘I’m delighted to report our best first half-year performance,’ said Kevin Rountree, chief executive of Games Workshop.
The Nottingham-based group’s results come about a month after it agreed creative guidelines with Amazon to adapt Warhammer 40,000 into films and television shows, together with the associated merchandising rights.
Under the deal, Amazon has a further option to license equivalent rights in the Warhammer Fantasy universe following the release of the initial Warhammer 40,000 production.
Adam Vettese, a market analyst at eToro, remarked: ‘Games Workshop’s Warhammer series seems to be the golden goose that keeps laying eggs.’
He added: ‘Warhammer is more popular than ever, and especially now with multiple revenue streams to exploit its popularity, making hay while the sun shines seems to be what the firm is doing.’
Games Workshop does not anticipate any ‘material impact’ on its performance for the current fiscal year because of the Autumn Budget.
While the National Living Wage is due to increase by 77 pence to £12.21 in April, the business noted it paid all its UK employees close to that amount.
But despite this forecast and its bumper half-year performance, Games Workshop shares fell 2.6 per cent to £128.90 just after midday on Tuesday.
However, the firm’s shares have still skyrocketed by about 2,575 per cent over the past decade, boosting its value to approximately £4.3billion.
Under Rountree’s leadership, Games Workshop’s growth has been powered by better relations with fans and the introduction of more simplified games like Blood Bowl, a parody of American football.
Much of its expansion was bolstered by Covid-19 restrictions encouraging locked-down consumers to find new hobbies to occupy their time.
Having experienced multiple consecutive years of sales and profit growth, the group joined the FTSE 100 in December not long before its 50th anniversary.
Games Workshop was started in 1975 by three friends – Ian Livingstone, John Peake, and Steve Jackson – in a Shepherd’s Bush flat as a board games seller.
Before founding Warhammer in the early 1980s, the company was the exclusive UK and European distributor for role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
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