Israeli mobile gaming firm cuts 90 job after revenue drop

Israeli mobile gaming firm cuts 90 job after revenue drop

Tech in Asia·2025-06-07 13:00

Playtika, a mobile gaming company, has laid off about 90 employees, including around 40 in Israel and 50 in Poland.

The layoffs affect the development teams of two games, Best Fiends and Redecor.

These cuts follow a recent round of layoffs at Wooga, a Playtika subsidiary, which let go of about 50 employees two weeks ago.

The decision is linked to declining revenues, with Best Fiends’ monthly revenue dropping from US$8 million in March 2022 to US$3 million in May 2025.

Israel-founded Playtika is publicly traded on Nasdaq, with a current market valuation of US$1.83 billion.

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🔗 Source: Calcalist

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Mobile game acquisition integration challenges persist despite high valuations

Playtika’s struggles with Redecor highlight a recurring pattern in mobile gaming acquisitions where maintaining momentum post-acquisition proves difficult.

The company acquired Redecor developer Reworks in 2021 for $600 million, but within two years, all of the studio’s founders had departed, suggesting integration difficulties and cultural misalignment 1.

This follows an industry pattern where acquiring companies often struggle to maintain the creativity and success of purchased studios, similar to Playtika’s earlier acquisition of Wooga for over $100 million in 2018, which is now also facing layoffs 2.

The challenges show that financial investment alone doesn’t guarantee successful integration, with the actual talent and creative vision behind successful mobile games proving difficult to retain under new corporate structures.

Revenue decline for acquired titles like Redecor suggests that the valuation metrics used during acquisitions may overestimate long-term performance, especially when founding teams exit shortly after the deal closes.

2️⃣ Rapid revenue decline reveals the short lifecycle reality of mobile gaming

Best Fiends’ dramatic revenue drop from $8 million monthly in 2022 to approximately $3 million in 2025 demonstrates the typically steep decline curve for mobile games, even successful ones 3.

This 62.5% revenue contraction over just three years illustrates why mobile gaming companies must constantly launch new titles or acquire existing ones to maintain growth, as most titles follow similar patterns of initial success followed by gradual or sometimes rapid decline.

Playtika’s overall financial picture reflects this challenge—while the company reported record revenue of $706 million in Q1 2025, its net profit fell 42% year-over-year, with profit margins contracting from 8.1% to just 4.3% 1.

The layoffs affecting Best Fiends and Redecor teams directly reflect the industry’s response to these decline patterns, as companies typically reduce development resources for games past their peak revenue period to focus on newer titles with growth potential.

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