KB News Desk
Nexon has posted record first-half earnings on the back of continued growth of its flagship MapleStory franchise and the strong performance of ARC Raiders in Western markets.
According to Nexon on Thursday, its first-half sales reached 2.56 trillion won ($1.8 billion), up 17 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit rose 13 percent to 838 billion won while net profit more than doubled to 814 billion won.
In the second quarter alone, Nexon logged 1.14 trillion won in sales, 294.3 billion won in operating profit and 278.8 billion won in net profit. All three figures exceeded the company’s previously announced earnings guidance.
Following a record first-quarter revenue, Nexon pointed out that the MapleStory franchise — a side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game — remained a key growth driver.
The game company said the original PC version of MapleStory performed strongly in South Korea as well as North America and Europe. MapleStory: Idle RPG, a mobile casual RPG based on the franchise, also maintained solid momentum in the second quarter in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia.
As a result, Nexon said the revenue from the overall MapleStory franchise reached a quarterly record without disclosing the exact amount.
ARC Raiders, a multiplayer third-person extraction shooter, continued to contribute to growth in Western markets. According to Nexon, the game exceeded 16.3 million cumulative sales nine months after its launch, establishing itself as one of Nexon’s next major global franchises.
Thanks to the popularity of MapleStory and ARC Raiders, Nexon’s total overseas revenue reached a record high. It more than tripled in the Western markets in the first half, while revenue from Southeast Asia and other regions increased 76 percent.
“Nexon recorded solid results in the second quarter, led by strong growth from the MapleStory franchise and continued contribution from ARC Raiders,” said Nexon CEO Lee Jung-hun.
“From the second half, we will diversify our pipeline through new titles across various genres and expansion of our established franchises and strengthen our growth momentum through major updates for key titles.”
