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Netmarble Q2 OP falls 9.1% on base effect from blockbuster launch

  • Ahn Sun-je and Minu Kim
  • 기사입력:2025.08.08 10:01:11
  • 최종수정:2025.08.08 10:01:11
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(Netmarble)
(Netmarble)

Netmarble said Thursday its operating profit for the second quarter came to 101.1 billion won ($72.8 million), down 9.1 percent from a year earlier. Revenue fell 8.2 percent to 717.6 billion won, while net profit slipped 1.3 percent to 160.2 billion won.

The company attributed the decline to a base effect following last year’s blockbuster launch of Solo Leveling: Arise, which won the Grand Prize at the Korea Game Awards, leading to weaker revenue and profit compared to the same quarter in 2024.

Compared with the previous quarter, however, Netmarble posted notable growth, buoyed by the full-quarter contribution from RF Online Next, released in late March, and the successful May debut of Seven Knights Re:Birth. Revenue rose 15 percent and operating profit jumped 103.4 percent quarter-on-quarter.

For the first half, revenue totaled 1.34 trillion won, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier, but operating profit climbed 31.2 percent to 150.8 billion won.

Overseas sales for the quarter fell 19.8 percent on-year to 473.7 billion won, which the company said reflected the relative impact of growth in domestic sales.

By region, second-quarter revenue was led by North America at 35 percent, followed by Korea at 34 percent, Europe at 12 percent, Southeast Asia at 7 percent, Japan at 6 percent, and other regions at 6 percent. By genre, role-playing games (RPGs) accounted for 42 percent, casual games 33 percent, massively multiplayer online RPGs (MMORPGs) 18 percent, and other games 7 percent — with RPG growth particularly strong in the Korean market.

Netmarble plans to launch seven new titles in the second half, starting with VAMPIR on August 26, followed by King of Fighters AFK, StoneAge: Pet World, MONGIL: STAR DIVE, Project SOL, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, and Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive.

CEO Kim Byung-gyu said, “The consecutive success of RF Online Next and Seven Knights Re:Birth in the first half, along with leverage effects from cost structure improvements, have driven simultaneous growth in both scale and profitability. In the second half, we will aim to surpass our first-half performance through the impact of new releases and the global rollout of existing games.”

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