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$46.25 +0.46 (+1.00%) At close · Aug 14
Market Cap
$19.60B
Shares
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All earnings calls

Earnings call · FY2026 Q1

Unity Software Inc. Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Unity Software Inc. Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Concluded May 7, 2026 Audio replay
May 7, 2026 59:21 58 turns
Period
FY2026 Q1
Runtime
59:21
Sources
4 artifacts

Executive readout · one minute

What matters this quarter

Unity delivered Q1 2026 revenue of $508M (+17% YoY) with strategic revenue up 35% YoY and adjusted EBITDA margin of 27% (up 65% YoY on margin), while guiding Q2 to strategic Grow revenue growth of 50-52% YoY and adjusted EBITDA of $130M-$135M.

Vector AI advertising product 51 Unity AI engine product launch 31 Capital allocation and balance sheet 26 Cloud cost and gross margin leverage 18 AI adoption in game development 17 Financial performance and profitability 14

Management tone

Confident

Net tone +82 · low hedging

Grounding quotes
  • “Unity is on an incredible trajectory, growing rapidly on both the top line and the bottom line while also shipping the most ambitious product road map in our history”
  • “strategic revenue growth of 35% year-over-year and our best adjusted EBITDA margin in over 2 years at 27%, up 65% year-over-year”
  • “Our Vector revenue in the first quarter of 2026 is 80% larger than 1 year ago, an astonishing result”
  • “we now expect our business to become GAAP profitable by the fourth quarter of 2026, an important financial milestone”

Forward guidance

6 guided metrics

Management's latest ranges and targets are included below.

Research coverage

4 live sources

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Revenue $508.24M +16.8% YoY
Diluted EPS -$0.80
Gross margin 30.8% -43.0 pp YoY
Net income -$347.61M

Research materials

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Key takeaways

What improved, and what deserves a closer read.

Constructive signals

  • Strategic revenue grew 35% YoY to $432M, with Strategic Grow revenue up 49% YoY to $279M
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin of 27%, up 65% YoY, the best margin in over 2 years; Q2 guided adjusted EBITDA of $130M-$135M, up 44-49% YoY
  • Vector revenue grew 15% sequentially for the fourth straight quarter and is 80% larger than a year ago
  • Trailing 12-month free cash flow up 50% to $463M (from $308M) and $2.15B cash on balance sheet
  • New Made with Unity games up 12% QoQ and new sign-ups up 20% QoQ, the fastest growth since 2020
  • Unity AI entered public beta and runtime data is graduating to live production models this quarter with developer data opt-in rates above 90%

Risks & pressure points

  • GAAP net loss of $347M (-68% margin) and GAAP basic/diluted loss per share of $0.80 in Q1
  • Q2 total revenue guided to $505M-$515M, essentially flat sequentially, with the CEO attributing Q2 margin pressure in part to ironSource Ad Network cost deleverage (two fewer months in revenue)
  • Non-strategic revenue declined 34% YoY to $76M, driven by the wind-down of the ironSource Ad Network (sunset April 30, 2026) and planned Supersonic divestiture
  • Cloud/AI investment is expected to keep gross margins bouncing around, and management explicitly prefers revenue growth acceleration over near-term cloud cost optimization
  • Create Solutions revenue grew only 4% YoY to $157M, decelerating from the 15% prior growth in strategic Create revenue, and Q2 strategic Create revenue is guided to 11-14% YoY growth (ex a $12M one-time item)

Key moments

Jump directly to management's words in the synchronized transcript.

“Our first quarter results reflect this momentum with Unity posting strategic revenue growth of 35% year-over-year and our best adjusted EBITDA margin in over 2 years at 27%, up 65% year-over-year.” Speaker 2, CEO
“we now expect our business to become GAAP profitable by the fourth quarter of 2026, an important financial milestone and a reflection of the kind of company we want to run over the long term.” Speaker 2, CEO

Forward guidance

From the 8-K filed May 7, 2026.

Metric Guided
Total Revenue
Q2 2026
$505M – $515M
Strategic Revenue
Q2 2026
$455M – $465M
Strategic Grow Revenue
Q2 2026
$302M – $306M
Strategic Create Revenue
Q2 2026
$154M – $158M
Adjusted EBITDA
Q2 2026
$130M – $135M

Guidance from the call

Stated verbally and extracted from the transcript.

Metric Guided
Strategic ad revenue growth
second quarter
50%

Quarter detail

How the reported period landed and where the business moved.

Revenue · products & services

Grow Solutions$351.59M +23.5% YoY
Create Solutions$156.65M +4.2% YoY
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