Sea Delivers A Mixed Q1, CEO Highlights Improving Unit Economics — 'Significant Runway For Growth Still Ahead Of Us'

• Shopee helped Sea post a 46% year-on-year surge in revenue in Q1, with gross merchandise value soaring 30% to $37.3 billion.
• Shopee revenue registered a growth of 44.4% YoY to $4.5 billion, accounting for more than two-thirds of Sea’s total revenue for the quarter.
• Garena, Sea’s online gaming firm, registered its best quarter since 2021, according to the company.

Sea (SE) reported a mixed first-quarter (Q1), with CEO Forrest Li highlighting that the company’s unit economics have improved during this period.

The Singapore-based tech conglomerate reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.67 on revenue of $7.1 billion, while Wall Street analysts expected an EPS of $0.77 on revenue of $6.4 billion, according to Fiscal.ai data.

“Our strong revenue growth reflects the effectiveness of these investments, and we are already seeing unit economics start to improve for some of these initiatives. We believe this is the right approach to maximize long-term value, given the significant runway for growth still ahead of us in our markets,” said Li.

Sea is the holding company for the popular online games developer Garena, the digital payments and financial services provider Monee, and the e-commerce platform Shopee.

Sea’s American Depository Receipts were up nearly 13% in Tuesday’s pre-market trade. SE was among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing.

Shopee Powers SE’s Revenue Surge

Shopee helped Sea post a 46% year-on-year surge in revenue during Q1, with the gross merchandise value (GMV) soaring over 30% to $37.3 billion during the quarter.

Shopee revenue registered a growth of 44.4% YoY to $4.5 billion, accounting for more than two-thirds of Sea’s total revenue for the quarter.

“We are on track to deliver our 2026 guidance: to grow Shopee’s annual GMV by around 25% year-on-year, with full year adjusted EBITDA no lower than 2025 in absolute dollar terms,” Li said, while adding that this was a record-setting quarter for Shopee.

SE’s Online Gaming Firm Sees Best Quarter Since 2021

Garena, Sea’s online gaming firm, registered its best quarter since 2021, according to the company. Sea credited Garena’s success to the continued strength of Free Fire, alongside a record contribution from Arena of Valor.

Garena reported $931.4 million in bookings during the quarter, rising 20% YoY, while quarterly active users edged up by 1% to 666.5 million. Average bookings per user rose to $1.4, up from $1.17 in the same quarter a year ago.

“The sustained success of both games demonstrates our unique ability to operate games well across genres, in multiple markets, and over long periods of time. We will remain focused on delivering fresh experiences and building the long-term value of our game portfolio,” Li said.

Monee Continues To Grow Healthily, Says SE CEO Li

Li stated that Monee continued to grow healthily during the quarter, with asset quality remaining stable.

Monee registered a 58% YoY growth in revenue during the quarter to $1.2 billion, with consumer as well as small and medium enterprises (SME) loans growing 71% YoY to $9.9 billion as of March 31, 2026. Non-performing loans stood at 1.1% during Q1.

“Expansion into more user segments, off-Shopee use cases, and early markets like Brazil are giving us a much larger addressable opportunity across our portfolio,” Li said.

SE ADR is down 34% year-to-date and 39% over the past 12 months. The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA) is up 21% over the past 12 months, while the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) is up 22%.

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