Nexon posts record Q2 earnings on upbeat China sales

(Nexon)

Nexon has set a new record for second-quarter revenue and operating profits, driven by the exceptional performance of Dungeon & Fighter Mobile in China, which launched in May earlier this year.

In its latest filing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, Nexon reported a 64 percent year-over-year increase in operating profit, reaching 45.2 billion yen ($310.2 million) for the second quarter of this year. Revenue for the quarter surged 30 percent to 122.5 billion yen, and net income rose 63 percent to 39.9 billion yen.

Other titles such as FC Online, MapleStory and Blue Archive also contributed to the strong financial results, performing better than expected in various international markets.

Breaking down the revenue by region, 46 percent came from China, 40 percent from Korea, 6 percent from North America and Europe, and 4 percent from Japan. By platform, mobile games accounted for 54 percent of sales, while PC games contributed 46 percent.

Nexon highlighted that global revenue from its popular franchises -- Dungeon & Fighter, MapleStory and FC -- jumped 57 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, with international markets comprising 60 percent of the total revenue.

The company explained that its growth strategy is twofold: expanding existing intellectual properties to cover more genres and platforms, and developing new IPs. A key new release, The First Descendant, a massively popular multiplayer online looter shooter, launched in July and achieved significant success with a peak of 260,000 concurrent players on Steam and topped global weekly grossing charts.

Looking ahead, Nexon plans to launch The First Berserker: Khazan in 2025, an action role-playing game set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe. This title, developed by Nexon's subsidiary Neople, will be showcased at Gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Germany, from Aug. 21.

Additionally, the zombie apocalypse survival game Nakwon: Last Paradise is set for its second testing phase later this year. Nexon has also entered a publishing agreement with Tencent and Embark Studios to bring first-person shooters The Finals and ARC Raiders to the Chinese market.