Kayac Inc. posted record first-quarter sales as new mobile gaming titles drove downloads to all-time highs, while the sale of its sports school business contributed to a substantial increase in net profit.
The Kamakura-based content developer reported sales of ¥4.67 billion ($31.1 million) for the January-March quarter, up 19.4% from a year earlier. The company’s main hypercasual game segment saw a 14% increase in revenue to ¥2.51 billion as two new titles, “Ragdoll Shooting” and “Shuriken Cut,” helped push quarterly downloads to 93.13 million, a 9.7% increase from the previous three months.
Despite strong operational performance, ordinary profit declined 15.3% to ¥188 million due to foreign exchange losses and equity-method investment losses. Net profit, however, surged 196.5% to ¥413 million, bolstered by an extraordinary gain from the February sale of eSP Co., its sports school subsidiary, in a deal reportedly worth ¥840 million ($5.6 million).
The company’s regional capitalism business showed the strongest growth, with revenue jumping 78% as its “Smout” relocation support service reached 69,000 registered users. Kayac’s digital marketing division also expanded beyond traditional advertising into higher-value product development consulting, while its eSports tournament platform hosted 17,712 events during the quarter, a 6.5% sequential increase.
