E-commerce and gaming company Sea (NYSE:SE) reported Q4 CY2025 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations , with sales up 37.7% year on year to $6.85 billion. Its GAAP profit of $0.63 per share was 2.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Sea? Find out in our full research report.

Revenue: $6.85 billion vs analyst estimates of $6.43 billion (37.7% year-on-year growth, 6.6% beat)

EPS (GAAP): $0.63 vs analyst estimates of $0.62 (2.3% beat)

Adjusted EBITDA: $787.1 million vs analyst estimates of $824.2 million (11.5% margin, 4.5% miss)

Operating Margin: 8.2%, up from 6.1% in the same quarter last year

Paying Users: 58 million, up 7.6 million year on year

Market Capitalization: $62.29 billion

“2025 has been a great year for Sea. All our businesses scaled well, exceeding our initial growth expectations. This broad-based robust growth is healthy and sustainable, underpinned by the growing scale of users that we serve. In 2025, Shopee served around 400 million active buyers and 20 million sellers. Monee gained over 20 million unique first-time borrowers. And Garena connected on average with more than 100 million players daily throughout the year,” said Forrest Li, Sea’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Founded in 2009 and a publicly traded company since 2017, Sea (NYSE:SE) started as a gaming platform and has since expanded to offer a variety of services such as e-commerce, digital payments, and financial services across Southeast Asia.

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last three years, Sea grew its sales at an exceptional 27.4% compounded annual growth rate. Its growth surpassed the average consumer internet company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a great starting point for our analysis.

This quarter, Sea reported wonderful year-on-year revenue growth of 37.7%, and its $6.85 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 6.6%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 20.5% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last three years. We still think its growth trajectory is attractive given its scale and indicates the market is baking in success for its products and services.

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As an online marketplace, Sea generates revenue growth by increasing both the number of users on its platform and the average order size in dollars.

Over the last two years, Sea’s paying users, a key performance metric for the company, increased by 24.9% annually to 58 million in the latest quarter. This growth rate is among the fastest of any consumer internet business and indicates its offerings have significant traction.

In Q4, Sea added 7.6 million paying users, leading to 15.1% year-on-year growth. The quarterly print was lower than its two-year result, suggesting its new initiatives aren’t accelerating user growth just yet.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) is a critical metric to track because it measures how much the company earns in transaction fees from each user. ARPU also gives us unique insights into a user’s average order size and Sea’s take rate, or "cut", on each order.

Sea’s ARPU growth has been impressive over the last two years, averaging 8.8%. Its ability to increase monetization while quickly growing its paying users reflects the strength of its platform, as its users continue to spend more each year.

This quarter, Sea’s ARPU clocked in at $118.14. It grew by 19.7% year on year, faster than its paying users.

We enjoyed seeing Sea beat analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad it expanded its number of users. On the other hand, its EBITDA missed. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded down 12.1% to $92.44 immediately following the results.

So do we think Sea is an attractive buy at the current price? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.