Trophy Games acquires Airlines Manager maker Playrion from Paradox for $2.6m

Trophy Games has agreed to acquire Playrion, the studio behind Airlines Manager and Airport Simulator: First Class, from Paradox Interactive for $2.6m.

It marks in the largest acquisition in Trophy Games’ history. Playrion has around 30 employees and generates annual revenue of around $4.6m (€4.0m).

The upfront cash consideration is $2.6m (€2.25m), payable at closing on a cash- and debt-free basis, with Paradox also entitled to an earnout worth 9% of net revenue from Playrion’s games over the following three years.

The deal is funded entirely from Trophy Games’ existing cash reserves and is expected to close on September 30.

Playrion will keep operating independently out of its Paris studio. Trophy Games said its main interest is in using Airport Simulator and its underlying technology as the basis for a new series of simulation games.

It’s a strategy Playrion has applied before when its 2021 acquisition of Airline Manager 4 became the foundation for what is now a line of six management games, as founder and CEO Søren Gleie explained in the press release.

“We have followed Playrion for four years and know both the games and the market well. What makes this acquisition particularly interesting to us is the potential to build from an already proven foundation,” Gleie said.

Trophy Games also said it sees near-term opportunities to improve Playrion’s existing games through its marketing, data, technology and development capabilities.

“We have grown revenue more than fourfold over the past five years, have six new games coming to market over the next year and now have the financial capacity to make larger acquisitions. Playrion is our largest acquisition to date and an important step in our strategy to continue growing both organically and through acquisitions,” Gleie added.

Following the acquisition, Trophy Games has raised its full-year 2026 guidance. Revenue is revised upwards to $25.9m-27.4m (DKK 170m-180m) from $22.8m-25.4m (DKK 150m-167m), and EBITDA guidance shifts to $4.4m-5.3m (DKK 29m-35m) from $4.3m-5.5m (DKK 28m-36m). EBIT guidance is unchanged at $2.7m-3.7m (DKK 18m-24m).

The revised guidance accounts for a full quarter of Playrion’s contribution following closing, and includes upcoming title The Ranchers, but not Space Manager, which is due to release on October 12.