Krafton profits up to $171.5 million despite lowest quarter since 2020

Krafton, the Korea-based publisher behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, released its Q3 financial results alongside news on how it's expanding its collection of studios.

The company reported that it saw revenues of $328.5 million and net profits of $171.5 million, the latter marking a year-on-year improvement of 27%.

Krafton also announced it plans to acquire Neon Giant, the developer behind The Ascent, and open a new studio in Canada. Here's what you need to know:

The numbers

• Revenue: 433.8 billion KRW ($328.5 million, down 17% year-on-year)
• Net profit: 226.4 billion KRW ($171.5 million, 27%)

The highlights

The 17% decline in revenues for the three months ended September 30 marks the lowest quarterly revenues since Q4 2020, when the publisher reported taking 433.4 billion KRW ($328.5 million).

It's also a significant decline from the record revenues it reported in Q1 2022, reaching $405.7 million at the time. However, shrinking revenues did not prevent a marked increase in net profit.

The company cited the growth of PUBG: Battlegrounds as a key factor in its profitable performance, with sales growing during Q3 thanks to the retention of new users that joined when the game transitioned to free-to-play back in January.

PC sales also reached their highest numbers since 2019, generating 131.1 KRW ($99.4 million). Krafton did not specify revenues, but claims console sales are also up 133% year-on-year.

Meanwhile PUGB Mobile generated 282.4 billion KRW ($214.1 million, up 26%), accounting for 65% of the company's total revenue alone. Krafton plans to build on this by releasing a "lightweight build" of the game for players on lower-end smart devices.

The publisher also said it is "continuing efforts to resume services for Battlegrounds Mobile India, and will continue investing in the Indian games market."

The game was blocked by the government in July over "national security concerns" around data sharing and mining from China, since Chinese tech firm Tencent owns 13.6% of Krafton.

Battlegrounds Mobile India is an India-specific version of PUBG Mobile after the latter was banned by the government for the same reason in 2020.

Finally, Krafton announced two pieces of studio news within its financial report.

Firstly, the company said it plans to acquire Swedish studio Neon Giant, although no figure was given. The studio was founded by former Wolfenstein and Bulletstorm developers in 2018.

Krafton also plans to launch a major studio in Canada, which will lead development on The Bird That Drinks Tears, a game based on the series of fantasy novels inspired by Korean mythology that were penned by Korean author Lee Yeongdo.

No further details were given at this time.