Rumble (RUM) stock dropped around 8% after the company reported Q1 2026 results that missed Wall Street expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
Revenue came in at $25.46 million, up 7.4% from a year ago but about 2% below the analyst estimate of $25.98 million. The GAAP loss per share of $0.12 was worse than the -$0.09 consensus.
Despite the misses, RUM has still gained around 31.7% year to date, well ahead of the S&P 500’s 8.8% rise over the same period.
$RUM Rumble Q1 2026 Earnings Highlights
$RUM reported Q1 revenue of $25.5M
+7% YoY
vs ~$24M consensus estimate (beat!)
GAAP EPS: -$0.12Adjusted EBITDA: -$21M
Cash & Investments: $233MFree Cash Flow: -$17.7MAdjusted Operating Expenses: $46.5M (+3% YoY)
Strong cash… pic.twitter.com/s45jFHwJL6— Nick (@NickUSA01) May 15, 2026
CEO Chris Pavlovski pointed to higher spending on sales and marketing as a factor in the quarter, particularly around international expansion efforts. The company also ramped up investment in Rumble Shorts, its short-form video product.
Monthly active users reached 56 million in Q1, a figure Pavlovski credited to marketing campaigns and the early traction of Shorts. He noted Shorts hit a record 2 million unique views in a single day in May.
However, because Rumble Shorts is not yet generating revenue, its growing usage actually pulled down average revenue per user for the quarter.
The bigger strategic story right now is Rumble’s push into cloud infrastructure. The company is in the process of acquiring Northern Data, a move management says will bring GPU and CPU-as-a-Service capabilities to the platform.
Pavlovski said cloud could become the largest revenue generator for the business, calling it a future “pillar alongside video.” Early customer interest in AI training and digital asset workloads has been cited as validation for the strategy.
CFO Mike Masci emphasized a disciplined integration approach, aiming to grow cloud revenue quickly without losing financial control. The company also secured a partnership with Anchorage Digital, a regulated digital asset firm, as part of its infrastructure buildout.
On the crypto side, the Tether partnership continues to develop. Tether has committed $100 million in advertising spend, and Rumble Wallet is being rolled out as part of that collaboration.
Rumble plans to start monetizing Shorts in the second half of 2026. A self-serve advertising feature is also in the works, modeled on tools used by Facebook and Instagram, with a target launch by summer.
The company hired a new President of Sales for its Rumble Advertising unit and has been opening up programmatic advertising channels. These moves are designed to bring in more ad dollars from brands and political campaigns alike.
With U.S. midterm elections approaching, management described political advertising as a major opportunity. Pavlovski called it a “big moment” for the platform.
On the cost side, the company reported reductions in content, programming, and administrative expenses during the quarter.
For Q2, the current consensus sits at a loss of $0.10 per share on revenue of $116.58 million. Full-year estimates point to a loss of $0.32 on $460.04 million in revenue.
Zacks currently rates RUM as a Hold, with the stock expected to perform in line with the market in the near term.
The post Rumble (RUM) Stock Drops 8% After Q1 EPS and Revenue Miss appeared first on CoinCentral.
