Ubisoft's earnings report for the first half of this financial year (Apr. to Sep.) has given a very positive look at the growth of Rainbow Six Siege.
Across the entire company, Ubisoft brought in a total of €406.1 million in Q2 compared to a target of €270 million. The improved performance was primarily attributed to the Assassin's Creed franchise and R6.
Rainbow Six Siege has crossed the 85 million unique registered players mark and continues to see a very large number of players engaging with the game on a daily basis with player acquisition growing quarter-on-quarter. We are also seeing higher engagement from current players, and record [Daily Average Revenue Per User] following a second consecutive quarter of very strong year-on-year growth. As a consequence, total net bookings increased a significant 18% year-on-year. Looking ahead, we have exciting new content planned for Year 7 Season 4, highlighted by the rollout of highly requested cross-play and cross-progression as well as the debut of an all-new map for players to experience.
While the 85 million figure is somewhat deceptive, as it includes every ‘alternative’ account and free weekend download, this is still a remarkable achievement.
Ubisoft previously announced a player-figure of 80 million in Feb. this year, and 70 million in Feb. 2021. By this rate, Rainbow Six will hit the 100 million milestone by SI 2024 and the end of Year 8.
For context, Assassin's Creed Valhalla -- the most recent entrance in Ubisoft's biggest franchise -- just crossed 20 million unique players in the two years it has been out, while Overwatch hit 50 million players when its sequel was announced.
The more important statistics mentioned, though, are the ones related to financial growth. The 18 percent year-on-year growth and a new record DARPU (Daily Average Revenue Per User) figures means that Rainbow Six is earning Ubisoft more money than expected and explicitly "outperformed" expectations.
This year, a lot of attention has been put on Siege's dwindling Steam player counts with active players averaging figures last seen five years ago.
However, this does not include both Ubisoft Connect and console figures that likely make up the vast majority of players. R6 is also available on Xbox Games Pass, allowing players to try the game for "free".
With an 18 percent rise in revenue, it is thus highly unlikely that Siege player counts have dropped across the board as Steam figures suggest. The rise in DARPU indicates that the revenue has risen faster than the player count is falling and any dips in true player count will probably be less than 16 percent.
All together, this strongly implies that (despite fan concerns) Ubisoft will not drop support for the game out of the blue. With R6 actively growing this year in the areas that Ubisoft cares about the most, the game seems to remain in a healthy state.
Also spoken about was the success of Rainbow Six Mobile's test launch:
After a first test in April that successfully assessed its gameplay, Rainbow Six Mobile, led by Ubisoft Montreal, is close to ending its closed beta on Android, during which we have tested the progression systems. Our teams have delivered a truly remarkable technical achievement by bringing Siege's acclaimed procedural destructible gameplay to mobile. More than 250,000 players have played the closed-beta, retention KPIs are supportive, player feedback is strong, and the tests confirmed the game’s capacity to reach new players in countries such as India and other mobile-first markets. Looking ahead to the next phase, soft launch on both iOS and Android, will allow us to prepare for the game’s release at scale.
The key thing to take away here is the 250,000 players figure, despite the game not being available in some of R6's biggest regions, the focus on India as a target market, and that the test was internally seen as a success.
Mobile gaming and explicitly-mobile games such as Free Fire and PUBG Mobile have outperformed their traditional peers in upcoming markets such as Brazil, India, and Indonesia significantly over the last few years.
With Rainbow Six's success in Brazil, this gave R6 Mobile a massive starting advantage, but the game's apparent popularity in India -- a nation with minimal presence on the R6 scene and with no dedicated servers -- shows the Mobile game's potential to grow in these regions independently.
R6 Mobile is still set to be released in 2022.