Zynga Inc., the mobile game company behind franchises such as FarmVille, said its audience declined more than it expected late in the second quarter, and the company lowered its full-year forecast for bookings, a key indicator of sales.
The disclosures helped send Zynga’s shares down about 16% in extended trading Thursday, though the company posted record revenue and bookings for the quarter that ended in June.
“What we started to see as we entered June was this great reopening,” Zynga Chief Executive Officer Frank Gibeau said in an interview. “People started traveling and going out to dinner again.”
Zynga isn’t the only game company that noted a recent slowdown in engagement coming out of the most recent quarter. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Activision Blizzard Inc. also cited that trend in their quarterly financial reports this week, though both said their number of active users remained above prepandemic levels.
Separately, image-sharing company Pinterest Inc. and Roku Inc. said people have started spending less time using their products in recent weeks.