Paradox is responsible for many of the most ubiquitous PC games on the market, including a robust selection of strategy games with lengthy shelf lives boosted by both free updates and DLC. The company reveals in its latest financial report that 2019 was its best year – thanks in large part by the continued success of its back catalogue titles.

“2019 was the best year in the history of Paradox, both in terms of revenue and profit,” CEO Ebba Ljungerud says in the report. Revenue hit SEK 1,289 million in 2019, while pre-tax profit reached SEK 467 million – increases of 14% and 3%, respectively, when compared with 2018.

87% of 2019’s revenue came from titles “where the base game was released during a previous year” – so the vast majority of Paradox revenue is coming out of back catalogue sales and new DLC for older titles. Paradox released relatively few new titles in 2019 (Imperator: Rome, Age of Wonders: Planetfall, and Surviving the Aftermath), and Ljungerud says that many of Paradox’s investments for 2019 are for “games that we intend to release and see revenues from in the coming years”.

The success is also reflected in player counts, as Paradox titles reached a monthly active player count of over four million people at the end of 2019 – 30% more than the previous year.

Curious how we did this past year? 🙂 We just published our latest Annual Report, for the year 2019. You can download and read it here: https://t.co/MmbE4PhxN7 — Paradox Interactive (@PdxInteractive) April 17, 2020

Part of the player influx comes from the company’s recent investment in console gaming, which made up “15% of our total revenue”.