South Korea’s five leading gaming companies—Nexon, NCSoft, Netmarble, Krafton, and Kakao Games—have shown a marked divergence in second-quarter performance, widening the gap between them.
Nexon on Aug. 8 reported record-breaking second-quarter results, with sales of 1.076 trillion won ($788 million) and an operating profit of 397.4 billion won, up 30% and 64% year-on-year, respectively. This success was driven by strong performance across its core game IPs, including Dungeon & Fighter, MapleStory, and EA Sports FC Online (formerly FIFA Online). The mobile game Dungeon & Fighter Mobile, released in China in May, became the top-grossing mobile game worldwide, significantly contributing to these results. A Nexon representative stated that global sales of games based on their key IPs grew by 57% compared to the previous year, with international sales now accounting for 60% of total revenue. Netmarble also saw improved profitability, with second-quarter sales increasing 29.6% from last year to 782.1 billion won, achieving its highest quarterly sales ever. Operating profit surged to 111.2 billion won, a 2905.4% increase from the previous quarter.
In contrast, NCSoft and Kakao Games, which reported earlier, continue to struggle. NCSoft’s sales during the same period were 368.9 billion won, with operating profit dropping to 8.8 billion won, a 75% decrease from last year. Poor performance from its Lineage IP, which generates 60-70% of its revenue, contributed to the decline. Kakao Games reported second-quarter sales of 235.6 billion won and operating profit of 2.8 billion won, down 89% year-over-year. Krafton will release its second-quarter earnings results on Aug. 12, with expectations for positive performance due to stable revenue from PUBG: Battlegrounds following recent updates.
