Snail Inc (NASDAQ:SNAL) stormed back to profitability in the first quarter, posting results that blew past analyst estimates and sending shares up roughly 156% on Thursday as investors bet on a crowded content pipeline stretching through the rest of the year.
The numbers behind the move were hard to ignore. Net revenues climbed 35.7% to $27.3 million for the three months ended March 31, up from $20.1 million a year earlier, driven by strong sales of ARK: Survival Ascended and the breakout performance of medieval survival game Bellwright. Net income swung to $2.1 million from a net loss of $1.9 million in the same period last year, a gain of roughly 210% year over year.
Total units sold rose 42.6% to 2.2 million in the quarter, with ARK: Survival Ascended accounting for approximately 1.4 million of those sales. The game's average daily active users reached 127,000 in the quarter, peaking at 188,000.
ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition reached 11.9 million cumulative downloads as of March 31, with an average of 141,000 daily active users.
The results cleared estimates from Noble Capital Markets by a wide margin. Noble had forecast revenue of $18 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $4.6 million for the quarter; Snail delivered $27.2 million in revenue and $2.4 million in adjusted EBITDA. The firm attributed the outperformance to stronger ARK: Survival Ascended and Bellwright sales, as well as continued conversion of deferred revenue.
Noble raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $100.3 million from $92 million and lifted its adjusted EBITDA estimate to $7 million from $6 million. The firm noted it had tempered its second-half estimates while allowing a portion of the first-quarter upside to flow through to the full-year outlook.
Noble reiterated its 2027 forecasts of $122 million in revenue and $15.7 million in adjusted EBITDA.
On valuation, Noble said Snail shares trade at roughly 0.7 times enterprise value to its 2027 adjusted EBITDA estimate, a substantial discount to video game developer and publisher peers, which trade at an average of approximately 9 times on the same metric. The firm described the shares as offering a favorable risk-reward relationship and rates Snail outperform.
Looking ahead, the company has eleven internally developed projects and six licensed IP titles expected over the next 12 to 18 months, including multiple ARK content releases, a Bellwright expansion to PlayStation and Xbox, and internally developed titles such as Gobby Game.
Snail is also advancing three AAA projects: For The Stars, Nine Yin Sutra: Immortal, and Nine Yin Sutra: Wushu.
Image credit: ARK: Survival Ascended courtesy of Snail Games