Cloud Imperium Games Posts $3.7 Million In Sales In July 2024

After recording a very good second quarter for 2024, Cloud Imperium Games' revenue slid down to $3.7 million for the month of July according to the CCU Game dashboard. July's revenue represents a 14.8% year-over-year decline from July 2023's total of $4.4 million. For the year, the company's revenue is basically flat, with this year's total of $58.1 million only $50,000 more than revenue over the first seven months of 2023.

For those who keep track of new accounts (aka "new citizens"), July's 37,257 was 40.6% less than the total of 62,757 in July 2023. For the year, new account creation is down 28.1% for the first seven months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

Overall, the recorded sales tracked on the CCU Game dashboard is $715.5 million since the launch of the Kickstarter in October 2012. But Cloud Imperium has additional funding sources not tracked by the dashboard. Overall, the company has recorded $814.1 million in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2022 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $715.5 million (through 31 July 2024)
• Subscriptions: $33.0 million (through 31 December 2022)
• All other sources: $65.6 million (through 31 December 2022)

In addition, the company has received a total of $63.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2022 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $872.6 million.

The flat year-over-year revenue growth in 2024 is not the only concern for Cloud Imperium emerging in July. On 2 July, the company filed paperwork with UK Companies House formalizing the resignation of Ortwin Freyermuth from the board of directors. Freyermuth, a long time business associate and co-founder of Cloud Imperium with CEO Chris Roberts, still retains the Vice Chairman position.

What makes the resignation a concern is the 75-year-old Freyermuth is the third largest shareholder in CIG, owning 8% of issued shares. Historically, all the major shareholders have had a representative on the board of directors of CIG. Does this indicate Freyermuth plans to divest himself of his financial position in CIG and head into retirement? While this would not affect Roberts' control of the company (he owns over 70% of shares), repurchasing Freyermuth's shares before the release of Squadron 42 could put CIG in a financial bind. Especially since outside of Squadron 42, revenue is not increasing at the 27% rate experienced over the past 5 years.