Revenue, downloads, and MAUs all on the rise as Unity closes Q4

Unity has released its end-of-quarter reporting for the three month period ending December 31, 2020, marking an end to both its first Q4 and first financial year as a public company.

Those Q4 results bring word of $220.3 million in revenue for the game engine maker, up 39 percent year-over-year. Revenue for the full year is also up compared to last year's numbers. Unity reports $772.4 million for 2020, up 43 percent year-over-year and exceeding its target for the full year by a good $20 million.

While revenue is up for both the quarter and the full year, Unity still reported an overall loss in 2020, as it has with years prior. On a quarterly basis, Unity posted a loss from operations of $80.8 million, 37 percent of revenue, as compared to Q4 2019's loss of $48.6 million, 31 percent of revenue. For the full year, that loss from operations comes to $274.8 million, 36 percent of revenue, compared to $150.7 million, 28 percent of revenue, the year prior.

As with last quarter, Unity notes that there is some impact to its operating costs from an increase in stock-based compensation expenses, and a charge of $63.6 million relating to an earlier donation of shares. The losses reported for both Q4 and the full year are slightly higher than forecasted in Unity's Q3 results last year.

Outside of revenue and profit, Unity calls a number of highlights about the reach of its game engine, both in terms of developers using it and players of Unity-powered games. According to its data, 71 percent of the top 1000 mobile games during Q4 were made with unity, while Unity games saw 2.7 billion players per month in Q4, a 63 percent increase.

On the strictly game developer side, Unity also notes that 793 of its customers generated at least $100,000 in revenue during 2020, up from only 600 during 2019.