Zynga Q2 sees bookings jump 12%

Zynga today released its earnings report for the second quarter, showing the company's turn-around story is, for the most part, headed in the right direction.

For the three months ended June 30, the social game publisher reported revenues up 4% to $217 million, with bookings jumping 12% to $233.9 million. The bottom line was not as encouraging, as Zynga reported a net loss of $911,000. However, all three numbers were above guidance, with the net loss being particularly better than the original $15 million loss the company had projected.

The company leaned on its "forever franchises" to carry the numbers, with bookings from Words With Friends, CSR2, and Zynga Poker up 49%, 21%, and 13%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.

While those numbers are encouraging, the company's audience metrics were mixed. Daily active users were down from 25 million to 23 million quarter-over-quarter, but up from 21 million year-over-year. Monthly unique payers were down to 1.1 million after a full year holding steady at 1.2 million, and players were converting to payers at a rate of 2%; the lowest rate during the preceding four quarters had been 2.3%.

Looking ahead, Zynga is forecasting third quarter revenues down 3% to $218 million, bookings up 16% to $248 million, and a net loss of $21 million. In the previous year's third quarter, Zynga posted a net income of $18.1 million.

"We anticipate that our year-over-year growth will benefit from full quarter contributions from our Casual Cards and Gram Games acquisitions as well as strength across our forever franchises," the company said. "We continue to expect our sequential and year-over-year progression to be affected by declines in web and older mobile games."