Recently, Sea, the parent company of Garena, a well-known overseas game publisher, released its fourth quarter and full-year financial reports for 2023. The financial report shows that Sea’s GAAP revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 was US$3.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%; the annual total GAAP revenue was US$13.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%.
Sea Chairman and CEO Forrest Li said that the company achieved its first full-year profit since the IPO, with cash increasing to US$8.5 billion at the end of 2023, and looked forward to 2024 being the same profitable year. In addition, he said that the user acquisition and retention trends of “Free Fire” published by Garena have improved, and the peak DAU in February even exceeded 100 million.
The financial report shows that Sea’s digital entertainment (game business Garena) GAAP revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 was US$511 million, a slight decline from US$592 million in the third quarter; adjusted EBITDA was US$217 million, down from US$234 million in the third quarter. The U.S. dollar fell slightly; full-year GAAP revenue was $2.2 billion, a significant decrease of 44% from $3.9 billion in 2022, and adjusted EBITDA was $921 million, a significant decrease from $1.3 billion in 2022.
Forrest Li mentioned that in the field of digital entertainment, Garena has done a good job in improving and enhancing players’ gaming experience, and cited some examples, “We continue to launch novel and highly localized content for “Free Fire”. In the fourth quarter , we have partnered with Lamborghini to allow players to drive their vehicles in the game. We also recently announced a partnership with Indonesian idol group JKT48 to serve as Indonesian brand ambassadors for our products. This partnership is exciting for our players and delight, and enables us to nurture our local community.”
