Take-Two earnings: second quarter of fiscal 2027

The quarter in brief

Take-Two, the company behind Grand Theft Auto, had a smaller second quarter than a year ago, because it had no big new game to set against last year's releases. Sales fell by about a sixth from a year earlier.¹ The loss from running the business, before interest and tax, widened to $117.5 million from $98.0 million.¹

The net loss, the result after everything including one-offs, did shrink, to $54.0 million from $133.9 million. That came from tax, not from better trading. The loss before tax was almost unchanged, at $111.9 million against $115.5 million, while the tax line swung from an $18.4 million charge a year ago to a $57.9 million credit.¹ Per share, the loss was $0.29, against $0.73 a year earlier.¹

The company says the year still turns on Grand Theft Auto VI, due on 19 November 2026, and it nudged up its profit forecast for the year.¹

The figures, as the company printed them

Against what analysts expected

Analysts on average expected Take-Two to earn a profit of $0.49 a share for the quarter.²

What the company expects

Take-Two kept its forecast for the year's sales, measured as what customers spend on its games, at $8.0 to $8.2 billion, the same range it gave three months earlier.¹³ This is the figure the year is judged on, and holding it ten days before its biggest launch says the company has not changed its view.

It raised its forecast for an adjusted profit measure, the profit before interest, tax, the wear-and-tear charge on equipment and the write-down of assets bought with other companies, to $1,024 to $1,082 million, from $993 to $1,053 million. Both ends of the range moved up.¹³ More profit on the same sales means it expects to keep more of each dollar customers spend.

The net income it expects for the year barely moved: the range narrowed to $109 to $142 million, from $104 to $143 million.¹³ The reason is tax. It now expects income tax of $86 to $111 million, up from $55 to $76 million.¹³ Smaller items shifted too: interest costs are kept at $41 million, the wear-and-tear charge is cut to $165 million from $175 million, and the write-down of acquired assets is raised to $623 million from $618 million.¹³

For the third quarter, which contains the launch, it expects sales of $3,270 to $3,420 million and earnings of $1.30 to $1.44 a share. For the full year it expects $0.57 to $0.75 a share, after a first half that lost $0.47 a share.¹ It plans about $290 million of spending on equipment and other fixed assets for the year, of which $163.3 million has already gone, and expects more than $1,000 million of cash from running the business over the year.¹

Getting there takes a very large second half. Sales in the first six months were $3,030.9 million, against the $7,980 to $8,180 million it expects for the whole year.¹ The company itself names the timely delivery of its games as a key assumption.¹

The strong points

With Grand Theft Auto VI ten days from release, management says pre-orders keep reaching 'unprecedented levels', and it expects 'an historic year' for the company.¹ This is the company's own reading of demand rather than a result, but it bears on the one thing that matters most: almost everything Take-Two forecasts for the year depends on how this single game sells.

Take-Two expects a far bigger third quarter, with sales of $3,270 to $3,420 million and a return to profit of $1.30 to $1.44 a share.¹ That would be more than the whole first half's sales in a single quarter. It shows how much of the year the company has placed on the launch, and that it is prepared to put numbers on it in advance.

Against its own forecast for the quarter, given in August, the profit side came in better: net revenue of $1,497.0 million topped the $1,420 to $1,470 million it had expected, and the loss of $0.29 a share was far smaller than the loss of $0.75 to $0.84 it had forecast.¹³

The weak points

What players spent in the quarter, the company's net bookings, came to $1.60 billion, short of the $1.62 to $1.67 billion it had forecast three months earlier.¹³ Sales fell by about a sixth from a year earlier, and the drop was concentrated in sales of full games, which fell by more than two-fifths. Sales on PC and other platforms fell by about a third, and sales through physical shops halved.¹ Some of that is simply the lack of a big release this quarter. But the steadier part of the business, what existing players keep spending inside games they already own, also slipped, by 5% in sales and 9% in what players spent. Every platform fell: mobile, its largest by sales, by about a ninth, and consoles by about a seventh. Advertising sales declined as well.¹ That ongoing spending rose to 81% of sales from 72% only because full-game sales fell faster.¹

The company's own adjusted profit measure, before interest, tax, the wear-and-tear charge and the write-down of acquired assets, fell 21% to $92.2 million from $116.7 million.¹ The measure counts pay in shares as a cost and leaves out only interest, tax, depreciation and the write-down of acquired assets, so its fall shows the business itself earned less than a year ago, while the smaller net loss came from tax.

In the first six months the business used $173.5 million of cash in its day-to-day running, where a year earlier it brought in $83.7 million. That outflow is larger than the half's net loss of $88.1 million, mainly because of money put into game development and prepaid items.¹ At the same time, $629.2 million of its debt now falls due within a year, up from $30.0 million in March.¹ The company will have to repay or refinance a large sum while it is still consuming cash, which leaves it leaning heavily on the launch to turn that around.

What to watch

The first signal is whether Grand Theft Auto VI ships on 19 November as planned, and what the company and retailers say about copies sold and player numbers in the first weeks. Because most of the year's sales still have to arrive in the second half, an on-time launch with strong early sales would back the company's forecast, while any delay or a soft start would put it in doubt well before the next results are out.

The second is spending in the app stores on Take-Two's mobile games. Mobile is Take-Two's largest platform by sales, and its sales fell by about a ninth this quarter. If it keeps sliding while the new game sells, the base under the big launch is still weakening; if it steadies, the decline looks more like a pause. The third-quarter results will be the next check on both.

Our verdict on the quarter

In all, a strong report. The quarter itself was smaller than a year ago, the loss from running the business widened, and cash flowed out rather than in. But on the eve of its largest launch, Take-Two raised its profit forecast for the year and stood by its sales forecast, and that outlook outweighs a quiet quarter that had no major release to carry it.

Notes

1. Take-Two's results release, 9 November 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 9 November 2026. ↩
3. Take-Two's previous results release, 7 August 2026: sec.gov. ↩