After a lengthy losing streak, Zynga is profitable again

Struggling social/mobile game company Zynga posted earnings for its most recent quarter today, and the big news is that the company reported a profit for the first time in well over a year.

The fact that Zynga reports earning $5.1 million (GAAP) in profits (on $209 million in revenues) during the three months ending June 30th is notable because the company has been reporting significant losses for quite some time, even as revenues from games like Zynga Poker and CSR Racing have risen and fallen.

Zynga champions mobile games as the chief driver of its return to (GAAP) profitability, noting in a letter to investors that Q2 revenue from mobile games was up 33 percent year-over-year, now accounting for 86 percent of the company's total revenue.

"We believe there’s more opportunity to unlock value with our mobile franchises and are investing in bold beat roadmaps for 2017 and 2018," reads an excerpt of the letter. "In addition to live services, new title development will continue to play an important role at Zynga. Looking forward to 2018 and beyond, we’re actively developing new games in categories such as Action Strategy, Casual and Invest Express."

("Invest Express", of course, is a term used at Zynga for games like FarmVille: Tropic Escape.)