South Korean publisher Krafton has today released its preliminary earnings for Q1 2023, boasting record quarterly sales. At 538.7 billion KRW (approximately $407.8 million), there has been a 13.7% quarter-on-quarter increase and three percent year-on-year.
Krafton’s flagship title, PUBG: Battlegrounds, has been a big contributor towards this, having reached an all-time high in its in-game sales; PUBG celebrated its sixth anniversary back in March, and its development team intends to maintain this momentum by improving the game’s arcade mode and clan system, integrating new brand collaborations, and more.
Moving ahead
Of course, the quarter’s sales increase was also thanks in no small part to Krafton’s mobile division. Attempts to raise further interest have been seen in examples such as the sandbox mode called World of Wonder, implemented into PUBG Mobile during Q1. There are also plans to increase monetisation efficiency through Q2 by launching new progressive skins and collaborating with brands.
Since early 2023, Krafton has also been focusing on securing global second-party publishing capabilities since early this year, both through minority stake investments and in-house game development, ultimately planning to form a “virtual organisation”.
Recently, Krafton and NetEase got their day in court over the PUBG inspiration dispute, where Krafton claimed that NetEase had violated the agreements of their previous settlement.
Krafton’s QoQ operating profit for the first quarter of 2023 has increased to 283 billion KRW ($214.2 million), meaning a rise of 124.3 percent. In turn, its operating profit margin reached 53 percent.
Net profits being at 267.2 billion KRW ($202.2 million), meanwhile, drove a 50 percent net profit margin.
Aiming to shorten development times, the company is also researching deep learning technologies and looking to make proactive investments.
Meanwhile Activision Blizzard recently released its quarterly financials with net revenue up to $2.3 billion from $1.7 billion last year. The company had a strong performance with mobile too, as King saw another record quarter: revenue for Q1 has grown 8% year-over-year.