Corsair Gaming NASDAQ: CRSR reported what management called a “strong start” to 2026, highlighted by record first-quarter gross margin, results above the company’s guidance ranges for profitability, and improved balance sheet flexibility.
On the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Thi La said the quarter reflected “real progress in the transformation of this business,” pointing to “first quarter record gross margin,” adjusted EBITDA and EPS “well above the high end of our guidance,” and “a meaningful improvement in profitability versus a year ago.” La also said Corsair generated strong cash flow, reduced net debt to “near 0,” and returned capital to shareholders through share repurchases.
Q1 financial performance and margin expansion
CFO Gordon Mattingly said first-quarter revenue was $354.5 million, which he noted was above the midpoint of the company’s guidance. Gross profit increased 13% year-over-year to $116 million, while gross margin expanded to a first-quarter record of 32.7%.
Mattingly attributed the quarter’s performance to multiple factors tied to Corsair’s broader strategy, including “an accelerating pace of innovation in higher margin peripherals, platform growth in Elgato, direct consumer expansion, and disciplined expense and working capital management.”
Operating expense discipline also played a role. Mattingly said flat year-over-year expenses allowed gross profit growth to flow through to profitability metrics. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $35.8 million, up 58% year-over-year and representing 10.1% of revenue. Mattingly said it was the company’s second consecutive quarter of double-digit adjusted EBITDA margin. Earnings per share were $0.11 on a GAAP basis and $0.27 on a non-GAAP basis, compared to a loss in the prior-year period.
Segment results: peripherals strength offsets components pressures
La said Corsair’s gamer and creative peripherals business delivered “another excellent quarter,” with revenue up 10% year-over-year despite “real tariff headwinds.” She characterized the growth as “structural, not cyclical,” and described how the company is working to extend its Stream Deck ecosystem beyond a single device into a broader software layer that integrates across Corsair peripherals.
Mattingly reported that the gamer and creator peripherals segment gross profit grew 8% to $50.3 million despite tariff-related pressure. He said segment gross margin was 14.8%.
In contrast, La said gaming components and systems revenue declined 10% year-over-year, citing an industry backdrop that includes a “non-GPU upgrade cycle,” “challenging memory pricing dynamics,” and “semiconductor supply constraints” that have affected both availability and consumer demand. She said the dynamics are “industry-wide” and expected to persist in the near term.
Even with the revenue decline, La emphasized profitability improvement in the segment. Mattingly said gaming components and systems segment gross profit grew 18% year-over-year to $65.7 million, and segment gross margin expanded 670 basis points from 21.7% to 28.4%. He attributed the improvement to “strong supply chain execution, favorable memory pricing, and sequential market share gains,” while adding that the company expects “margin normalization over time.”
Ecosystem initiatives: Elgato marketplace, Stream Deck integration, and DTC growth
La highlighted continued momentum in Corsair’s ecosystem strategy, particularly within Elgato and Stream Deck. She said the Elgato marketplace posted “double-digit sequential growth” in new accounts and digital products during the quarter, and added that AI-assisted development is helping accelerate new content creation by lowering barriers for “a new generation of builders.”
On the Q&A portion of the call, La said applications and products being submitted to the marketplace span a “pretty broad range,” including content creation workflows such as “extensive use of Adobe Photoshop,” gaming profiles, and streaming-related controls. She described the platform’s range of use cases as diverse, and said the “bottleneck” is increasingly in curation and publishing speed.
Mattingly also pointed to channel mix as a contributor to margin quality. He said Corsair’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel grew to 20% of Q1 revenue from 17% a year ago, calling DTC “structurally higher margins” than wholesale and retail. La later said the company has a “deliberate goal” to reach 25% of revenue from its B2C business.
La cited several drivers behind that push, including M&A that added companies “very strong in B2C,” product strategy decisions around which products are emphasized online, increased marketing investment, and a retail store in the Bay Area that she said has been “very successful.” She also noted the company has started investing in “AI commerce” or “AI e-commerce” to adapt to changes in consumer shopping behavior.
AI workstations and views on semiconductor supply
La also discussed early demand signals for AI-focused workstations, particularly among “prosumers” and small and mid-sized businesses that want local AI compute. She said the market is “large and growing” and aligns with “Corsair’s and ORIGIN PC strengths,” while also urging measured expectations until semiconductor availability improves.
In response to a question about timing for improved semiconductor supply conditions, La said the information Corsair is using is consistent with broader market expectations, pointing to “sometime in 2027.” She added that availability for Corsair includes having access to memory—particularly DRAM—but that pricing remains a major variable because demand tracks average selling prices. In her view, a more balanced supply-demand picture and normalized pricing could lead to “a much bigger accelerations in computing.”
Cash flow, balance sheet, buybacks, and guidance
Mattingly said Corsair generated $29.7 million in cash from operations during Q1, driven by “strong earnings with balanced working capital management.” Cash and restricted cash rose $20.9 million sequentially to $119.7 million. He said the company ended the quarter with a “near 0 net debt position,” which he described as increasing flexibility for capital deployment.
During the quarter, Corsair repurchased approximately $5 million of stock under its $50 million authorization. Mattingly said the repurchase reflected the company’s view that its shares represent “a highly compelling investment opportunity,” and said Corsair intends to deploy capital across organic investment, M&A, deleveraging, and shareholder returns.
For the second quarter of 2026, Mattingly guided for:
- Net revenue of $295 million to $320 million
- Adjusted EBITDA of $12.5 million to $15.5 million
- Non-GAAP EPS of $0.05 to $0.07
He said revenue at the midpoint implies a roughly 4% year-over-year decline, with “low teens” growth in gamer and creative peripherals expected to be offset by a cautious outlook in gaming components and systems amid ongoing semiconductor shortages and related demand dynamics. Mattingly added that the expected sequential decline from Q1 reflects normal seasonality, and said adjusted EBITDA is expected to grow more than 70% year-over-year at the midpoint as the company focuses on margin expansion and operating expense management.
Mattingly also said Corsair reaffirmed its previously issued full-year guidance. On the Q&A, management said it chose to keep the full-year outlook unchanged despite the Q1 beat, citing the early point in the year and uncertainty in the macro environment.
La closed the call by saying the company was “proud of the start” to 2026 and looked forward to updating investors when it reports second-quarter results.
About Corsair Gaming NASDAQ: CRSR
Corsair Gaming, Inc, headquartered in Fremont, California, is a leading manufacturer of high-performance gaming peripherals and PC components. Since its founding in 1994 by Andy Paul, Don Lieberman and John Beekley as Corsair Microsystems, the company has evolved from producing memory modules to a broad portfolio of gaming hardware. Its product range includes gaming keyboards, mice, headsets, PC chassis, power supplies, cooling solutions, memory modules, solid-state drives and streaming accessories under brands such as Corsair, Elgato and SCUF Gaming.
The company's solutions cater to PC enthusiasts, competitive gamers and content creators, offering hardware and integrated software designed to optimize performance and user experience.
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