Nexon, NC and Krafton: a three-speed quarter for Korea's gaming giants

Between 10 and 11 November the big Korean games groups presented their quarterly results, with very different outcomes.

Nexon beats expectations

Tokyo-listed Nexon closed the third quarter with revenue of 138.4 billion yen, up 17% year on year (+9% at constant exchange rates), above the range the company had given. Operating income rose 11% to 41.8 billion yen and net income was 38.1 billion. Growth was driven by the MapleStory series, which according to the company posted record quarterly revenue (+72% year on year), and by FC. Nexon also reports that ARC Raiders has passed 17 million units sold and that DAVE THE DIVER passed 10 million in September. For the fourth quarter the company expects revenue of between 107.7 and 118.9 billion yen, down 13% to 4% year on year against the launch quarter of ARC Raiders; for the full year 2026 it forecasts revenue of between 519.4 and 530.6 billion yen and operating income of between 135.2 and 142.9 billion, both of which would be records. On the same occasion Nexon announced Project OVERKILL, a new online action RPG set in the Dungeon&Fighter universe and developed by Neople, which Tencent will publish in China.

NC returns to operating profit

NC reported revenue of 686.5 billion won, up 90.7% year on year, and operating profit of 119.6 billion, after an operating loss in the same period of 2025. Net profit, however, fell 94.2% to 20 billion won, below the average analyst estimate compiled by Yonhap Infomax (87.5 billion). According to The Korea Times, AION 2 hit a peak of 410,000 concurrent players and 110.3 billion won in cumulative revenue since its early access launch on 30 September.

Krafton: revenue up, margins down

Krafton posted revenue of 971.4 billion won (+11.6% year on year) and operating profit of 225 billion (-35.5%). PC revenue was down 32.5% year on year at 238.9 billion; also year on year, mobile rose 3.2% to 504.3 billion and console fell 15.9% to 8.6 billion, while "other" reached 219.6 billion. For the first nine months the group nonetheless reports record revenue and operating profit (3,633 and 1,197.5 billion won). According to The Korea Times, operating costs rose 43%, partly because of ADK Holdings' below-expectation performance and higher marketing spending.

Shift Up falls on the stock market

Shift Up also did poorly: operating profit -58.2% to 20.7 billion won, revenue -38.8% to 46.2 billion and a net loss of 25.5 billion. Stellar Blade brought in 5.9 billion won (-78.6%) and Goddess of Victory: Nikke 35.3 billion (-20.6%). According to ChosunBiz, the stock lost more than 10% in early trading on 11 November.

The Statcade figure

In the Statcade catalogue, updated at 4:10 p.m. on 11 November (Rome time), Krafton's PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS had 646,904 concurrent players on Steam, NC's AION 2 171,043 and Embark's (Nexon) ARC Raiders 39,239.