Changyou.com Limited announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year which ended on the 31st December 2009.

ChangYou’s chief executive officer Mr. Tao Wang speaks about Q4 results:

“In 2009, we executed on our strategies and enhanced our brand value through a successful IPO while experiencing consistent growth in our existing games, investing in and strengthening our game pipeline, and making various advances in game development technologies. Our user-centric development model and commitment to building our business for the long-term have generated record performances and have made ChangYou one of the leaders in China’s online gaming industry.”

Fourth Quarter 2009 Highlights
- Total revenues reached a record US$70.7 million, an increase of 3% quarter-over-quarter and 21% year-over-year, within the Company’s guidance.
- Net income reached a record US$38.9 million, or US$0.73 per fully diluted ADS1. Net income increased by 3% quarter-over-quarter and 34% year-over-year.
- Non-GAAP2 net income (i.e. excluding share-based compensation expenses) reached a record US$42.2 million, or US$0.79 per fully diluted ADS. Non-GAAP net income increased by 2% quarter-over-quarter and 39% year-over-year, within the Company’s guidance.
- Aggregate registered accounts for the Company’s games grew 8% quarter-over-quarter and 41% year-over-year to 80.9 million.
- Aggregate peak concurrent users (“PCU”) for the Company’s games grew 9% quarter-over-quarter and 19% year-over-year to 990,000.
- Average revenue per active paying account (“ARPU”) for the Company’s games increased 3% quarter-over-quarter and 1% year-over-year to RMB196.

Fiscal Year 2009 Highlights
- Total revenues reached a record US$267.6 million, up 33% year-over-year.
- Net income reached a record US$144.7 million, or US$2.81 per fully diluted ADS. Net income increased 34% year-over-year.
- Non-GAAP net income (i.e. excluding share-based compensation expenses) reached a record US$158.1 million, or US$3.05 per fully diluted ADS. Non-GAAP net income increased 39% year-over-year.

TLBB (aka Dragon Oath in the US), one of ChangYou’s flagship games hosts more than 875,000 PCU (Peak Concurrent Users) in China. Since the release of the Open Beta on Chinese servers, more than 50m accounts have been created. The game is currently ranked 3rd in the MMORPG market in China.

There’s also great news for European players that TLBB will be released in Europe with multi languages. The English version of TLBB will be launched in March and it is currently in Closed Beta testing stage, which was opened to European audiences on the 2nd February 2010.