Revenue and loss from operations beat expectations as Unity closes out Q2

Unity has closed out Q2 of its 2021 financial year with gains in both revenue and profit compared to the year prior. In fact, Unity makes it a point to note in its Q2 report announcement that this quarter marks the 11th consecutive quarter where revenue has grown by at least 30 percent year-over-year.

For Q2 2021, this means Unity reported revenue of $273.6 million for the three-month period ending June 30, 2021, up 48 percent from Q2 2020 and beating its Q2 revenue target of $240 million to $245 million by a good $30 million, give or take.

Breaking that down further by department, Unity's Create Solutions reported $72.4 million in revenue, Operate Solutions at $182.9 million in revenue, and Strategic Partnerships & Other with $18.3 million in revenue. Individually, all showed year-over-year gains.

Loss from operations, reported outside of the GAAP accounting standard, came in at $3.2 million for the quarter, beating out last quarter's forecast for non-GAAP loss from operations of between $30 million and $40 million.

Unity also tends to share numbers detailing how many of its customers generate at least $100,000 revenue on a trailing 12-month basis. Last quarter, that figure was 837 customers. This quarter, however, that category has grown to 888 different Unity customers generating more than $100,000 within the last 12 months. That's up from 716 customers the year prior.

One interesting thing to call out in this latest report is that Unity is paying particular attention to its gains outside of the game industry lately. One of the business highlights shared for this quarter alongside July's acquisition of SpeedTree-maker IDV points out that Unity has added multiple major automotive manufacturers and consumer product manufacturers to its customer base, and the company points out that it is also gaining traction in new markets thanks to partnerships with environmental conservation organizations.

The company's next-quarter should be an interesting one as well. Unity announced its sizable, $320 million acquisition of Parsec right alongside today's financial report today, which is expected to close sometime between now and the end of September. Meanwhile, Q3 will mark the first full quarter under Unity's change to its game engine licensing policy that changes which platforms game developers are able to publish to using the free version of the tool.

Looking forward into Q3, Unity expects revenue to land between $260 million and $265 million, while non-GAAP loss from operations is expected to land between $15 million and $20 million.