Everplay FY 2025: 44% profit jump, fatter margins, and a busier 2026 on deck
Everplay Group plc (formerly Team17 Group) has posted unaudited FY 2025 results showing a sharp improvement in profitability despite flat revenue. Profit before tax rose 44% to £36.6 million, helped by stronger new releases, better platform deals, and a strategic exit from low-margin physical distribution at astragon. Gross margin expanded to 46.0%, up 4.4 percentage points, with adjusted EBITDA up 11% to £48.5 million.
Below I unpack what moved the dial, where the risks sit, and what the 2026 slate could mean for investors.
Key numbers investors will care about
| Metric | FY 2025 | FY 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £166.0m | £166.6m | 0% |
| Gross profit | £76.3m | £69.4m | +10% |
| Gross margin | 46.0% | 41.6% | +4.4 pts |
| Adjusted EBITDA | £48.5m | £43.5m | +11% |
| Adjusted EBITDA margin | 29.2% | 26.1% | +3.1 pts |
| Profit before tax | £36.6m | £25.3m | +44% |
| Adjusted EPS | 25.7p | 24.1p | +7% |
| Operating cash conversion | 89% | 97% | -8 pts |
| Cash and cash equivalents | £51.9m | £62.9m | -17% |
| Total FY 2025 dividend | 2.9p per share | 2.7p per share | +0.2p |
Quick jargon check: back catalogue means older titles that keep selling; first-party IP are games Everplay owns; third-party IP are games it publishes for external developers. Adjusted EBITDA here includes amortisation of development costs, publishing rights and IP licences, and excludes acquisition-related items – Everplay’s way of showing the core economics of making and running games.
How Everplay grew profit without growing revenue
Revenue held steady at £166.0 million, but that masks a deliberate quality-over-quantity shift. Exiting astragon’s low-margin physical distribution helped push gross margin up to 46.0%. Strip out that distribution and Group revenue grew 5%.
New releases were the standout – revenue from fresh titles jumped 80% to £41.1 million, led by Team17’s Date Everything! and SWORN, plus StoryToys’ LEGO Bluey. Meanwhile, the back catalogue still did the heavy lifting at 75% of revenue, easing risk in a crowded indie market. Back catalogue revenue fell 13% versus a very strong FY 2024, but delivered double-digit growth versus FY 2023 – a sensible perspective check.
Division-by-division: Team17, astragon, and StoryToys
Team17: stronger slate and platform reach
- Sales up 8% to £106 million with over 20 million units sold.
- Six new games drove a 700%-plus increase in new release revenue year on year.
- Date Everything! added over 750k players since launch; new releases averaged 87% positive reviews on Steam.
- 16 DLC packs launched and nine existing games arrived on new platforms, including Worms Across The Worlds on Apple Arcade and an exclusive Overcooked! 2 version on Nintendo Switch 2.
Why it matters: Team17’s pipeline quality clearly improved, and partnerships with Netflix Games and Amazon Game Night broaden distribution for 2026. The group also acquired the Hammerwatch franchise and secured publishing rights to seven titles, which should feed the back catalogue for years.
astragon: strategy reset after a tough year
- Revenue down 33% to £29.5 million, affected by the exit from direct physical distribution. Excluding physical, revenue fell 18%.
- Two new titles launched – Firefighting Simulator: Ignite and first-party Seafarer: The Ship Sim – plus 11 paid DLCs and more platform placements.
- First-party IP rose to 83% of astragon sales, up from 70%.
Why it matters: results underwhelmed, but Everplay is refocusing investment on the most scalable simulation franchises and expects a “considerably improved” FY 2026. New IP includes Storage Hunter Simulator, and the next Bus Simulator is due later this year. The caution flag – management notes astragon’s valuation is sensitive to the performance of unreleased titles.
StoryToys: edutainment engine firing
- Revenue up 25% to £30.4 million with 376k active subscribers and peak monthly active users of 12.9 million.
- LEGO Bluey topped 1 million downloads in month one and became the number one Kids iPad app in 117 countries.
- New partnership with Netflix Games and three Apple Arcade Greats launches.
Why it matters: subscriber growth boosts visibility, and household IPs like LEGO and Barbie keep acquisition costs efficient. The scale of updates – 740 in the year – shows the team’s live-ops muscle.
Investment, cash, and the balance sheet
Everplay stepped up investment in owned IP. Capitalised development costs rose to £33.2 million, lifting the year-end capitalised development asset to £61.4 million. Development amortisation was £14.2 million.
Cash closed at £51.9 million, down from £62.9 million. The reduction reflects ongoing investment, acquisitions such as Hammerwatch and Bearded Brothers IPs, publishing rights purchases, and dividend payments. Operating cash conversion remained healthy at 89%, with a working capital outflow tied to licence revenue timing, deferred revenue unwinds, and lower year-end third-party distribution sales.
The Board declared a final dividend of 1.9p, taking the FY 2025 total to 2.9p per share.
2026 pipeline and guidance: heavy hitters set for H2
Management expects FY 2026 to be in line with market expectations – consensus of £173.6 million revenue and £50.5 million adjusted EBITDA. The release slate features at least 15 new games and apps, with at least five first-party IPs. Headliners include Hell Let Loose: Vietnam and Golf With Your Friends 2, plus Wardogs with Bulkhead. Several Team17 titles will also arrive on Netflix Games and Amazon Game Night.
Important nuance: costs for larger releases land in H1 while launches skew to late H1 and H2, so adjusted EBITDA delivery is expected to be second-half weighted. Execution timing will matter.
My take: quality uplift, stronger margins, and a fix-it job at astragon
- Positives:
- Margin expansion is real – a 4.4-point gross margin uplift and 3.1-point adjusted EBITDA margin rise despite flat revenue shows the strategy is working.
- New releases are back – up 80% – and platform partnerships should widen reach without heavy marketing spend.
- Back catalogue resilience – still 75% of revenue – underpins cash generation and reduces hit risk.
- Watch-outs:
- astragon needs to deliver its turnaround. Management confidence is encouraging, but FY 2025 missed expectations and the valuation is sensitive to unreleased titles.
- Cash stepped down as investment accelerated. That is sensible if payoffs arrive in H2 2026 and beyond, but it raises execution risk.
- First-party IP revenue dipped 9% to £56.1 million. The FY 2026 slate should reverse this, but it needs to show up in numbers.
What this means for retail investors
Everplay is returning to its indie roots with a more disciplined, higher-margin model. Team17’s slate quality has improved, StoryToys is growing subscribers and licensor breadth, and astragon is being refocused on franchises that scale. IP acquisitions and long-term publishing rights deepen the catalogue and help smooth earnings through cycles.
The investment case now hinges on 2026 delivery – notably Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, Golf With Your Friends 2, and astragon’s franchise updates – alongside monetisation from new platform partnerships. If the H2-weighted line-up lands, the step-up in first-party contribution and cash generation should follow.
Bottom line: a tidy profit surge built on better mix and execution. Keep an eye on astragon’s recovery and H2 launch timings, but on balance the direction of travel is positive.
