On March 8th, Astralis A/S published its 2021 annual financial report, giving some clues into the financial situation of its new North American League team.
Astralis Group is a publicly-traded company, and is therefore required by law to divulge certain financial information to the public, which includes revenues and which portions of their company make money.
According to the report, "The purchase of Disrupt Gaming was completed by issuing shares in Astralis A/S and had no cash flow impact." In the Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity on page 34, an amount totaling 1.286 million DKK (Danish Kroner) is attributed to "Adjustment of Acquisition of Minority Interest", suggesting this was the total value of shares given in exchange for the acquisition of Disrupt Gaming. In USD this equals approximately $200,000 - varying based on the exact exchange rate at the time of transfer.
According to the public figures released in Astralis’s 2021 annual Investor report, Astralis US, which is the Rainbow Six Siege team alone, posted revenue of 0.5 million DKK and expenditures of 1.0 million DKK. Effectively, Astralis US posted a loss during their first four months under the Astralis banner – Disrupt was acquired by Astralis in Sept., and their pre-Sept. finances were not disclosed.
According to Astralis US director of operations Mark “cashflo” Flood, the revenue figures include revenue gained from the Disrupt R6 Share weapon skins that are currently in the game.
Astralis’s first Astralis-branded skin is set to be released at some point this year.
The exchange rate of one Danish Krone to a US Dollar is 1 to 0.15 – meaning that million figure is a significantly less daunting number in USD.
Therefore, Astralis US posted revenue of around $75,000 from the Disrupt weapon skins, YouTube channel, and other forms of gaining revenue from Sept.-Dec. 2021, according to the report. Astralis US posted operating expenses of $150,000 for those four months, which accounts for things like housing costs, player salaries, and other various expenditures.
Extrapolated, this means that the average yearly operating cost for Astralis US is $450,000 – and their average yearly revenue is $225,000 pre-Astralis R6 Share branded opportunities.
According to Flood, who admittedly “runs lean”, these figures are “pretty close” to the average operating costs of Astralis US over a four-month period. It’s not a stretch to believe that several teams spend significantly more, however. No team is the same and there are other costs involved other than just player salaries – social media managers, support staff, and the like mean that finances fluctuate differently from team to team.
The public figures do not specify which percentage of this revenue is gained from YouTube ad revenue, any contracted split of Twitch earnings, or R6 Share sales.
Flood expects the revenue to go up when Astralis-branded items hit the in-game store, which should be as early as the next season.
According to a pie chart on page 14 of the report, Astralis Rainbow Six accounts for just one percent of the “Revenue business area” of Astralis Group as a whole. Naturally, Counter-Strike leads this category, with 70 percent of the pie chart. Astralis CS made 52.9 million DKK over a year-long period.
“The result is satisfactory, and we remain on track with an expectation of continued growth in 2022,” Anders Hørsholt CEO of Astralis said of the entirety of the team – which includes Counter-Strike, League of Legends, FIFA, and Rainbow Six Siege. According to the report, Astralis nearly doubled the amount of “employees” it holds over the year – from 43 up to 80. It was not disclosed whether “employees” covers “players”, or simply means the number of support or financial staff.
Overall, Astralis posted net revenue of DKK 75 million, and expenditures of DKK 115 million over the year-long period.
You can read the Astralis 2021 annual reports yourself here.