During the corona lockdown, few sectors performed better than gaming. Activity increased among users worldwide and gaming companies benefited from the trend. Over the past year, however, gaming companies on the Nordic growth exchanges have performed poorly, falling by an average of 28%. Recently, companies have started to recover.
Kapital Partner has compiled a list of 24 companies on the Nordic growth exchanges that are directly involved in the gaming sector. These include Paradox Interactive AB and Astralis A/S, which develop games and operate in esports under various game titles. Companies indirectly involved in the gaming sector through the sale of microchips, marketing services or betting are not included.
Several gaming companies have had a strong performance in the past week
Safe Lane Gaming AB (25%) is a growth company focused on both acquisitions and development of games for the global gaming market. The company provides games to a broad customer base and its portfolio consists of more than 15 games, which have been downloaded over 200 million times in total. Safe Lane Gaming AB has a market capitalization of SEK 86 million and revenues of SEK 57 million in 2021.
Trophy Games Development A/S (14%) develops and publishes games adapted for, for example, iOS, Android and PC. The company develops and publishes games primarily in the football manager segment. The games are resold under a number of brands and the users consist of private users. The company has a market capitalisation of DKK 148 billion and a turnover of almost DKK 38 billion in the last financial year.
Thunderful Group AB (7%) develops and localises PC, console and mobile games for the global gaming market. The company also distributes games, game consoles, game accessories and toys in the Nordic and Baltic markets. The company was founded in 2019 following a restructuring of the Thunderful, Bergsala, Amo Toys and Nordic Game Supply business groups. The company has a market capitalisation of approximately SEK 1.5 billion and a turnover of approximately SEK 3.1 billion.
Although the companies have seen a strong performance in their share price over the past week, they have seen significant falls over the past year. Safe Lane Gaming AB is down 87%, Trophy Games Development A/S is down 29%, and Thunderful Group AB is down 62%. The best performing stock over the past year has been Danish 5th Planet Games A/S, which has risen almost 129%.
The development of gaming companies on the Nordic growth exchanges the past year
Long-term growth drivers of the gaming sector
The gaming market is expected to grow to $547 billion by 2030 at an annual growth rate of 13%. The sector is being boosted by new ways of gaming such as VR, AR and cloud gaming. At the same time, more of the world’s population will have access to a faster and more stable network. The big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, etc. are also investing heavily in gaming. This benefits the gaming companies on the Nordic growth exchanges, as they help to provide content and solutions for the big tech companies’ rise in gaming. At the same time, this makes the gaming companies on the Nordic growth exchanges potential acquisition targets.
