Nexon released its third-quarter financial results, reporting “continued strong performance” from its major subsidiaries despite declines in revenue and operating profit.
Numbers
For the three months ended September 30, 2025
- Income: 118.7 billion yen ($767 million, down 12% year-on-year)
- Operating income: 37.5 billion yen ($242.3 million, down 27% year-on-year)
- Net profit: ¥38.2 billion ($247 million, up 41% year-on-year)
Highlights
Nexon said its overall revenue fell 12% due to the 2024 launch of Dungeon & Fighter Mobile in China and The First Descendant.
Although its operating profit fell 27%, it was in line with Nexon's expectations for the quarter.
Net income topped the company's forecast for the quarter at ¥38.2 billion ($247 million), driven by a profit of ¥9.2 billion ($59.5 million) compared with a loss of ¥19.6 billion ($126.7 million) in the same period last year.
Based on the franchise, Embark Studios' Arc Raiders was “Nexon's most successful global launch in its history.” Since October 30, the extravagant shooter has sold more than four million copies.
In its second week, over 700,000 concurrent players played on Steam and it took first place. ranked third on Steam's top wishlists in the world earlier this year.
“With a stream of fresh content that will continue through 2026, we believe Arc Raiders can become a permanent addition to Nexon's portfolio of global blockbuster franchises,” Nexon President and CEO Jeonghoon Lee.
Embark's free-to-play shooter The Finals also saw growth following its Season 8 update in September, leading to 58% year-over-year revenue growth in the third quarter.
Open beta testing for the Chinese adaptation of the game, developed in collaboration with Tencent, will begin on November 18. Nexon believes this will help improve the game's performance in the next quarter.
For Dungeon & Fighter, overall franchise revenue was down 45% year over year due to a mobile release in 2024.
However, Nexon noted that the mobile version showed quarterly growth thanks to many updates.
The PC version achieved 72% year-over-year growth in the third quarter, “driven by positive player reception over a series of content updates.” It also beat expectations in China with “double-digit annual growth.”
MapleStory's revenue grew 61% year over year, with Nexon expecting the franchise to grow 40% year over year in the fourth quarter, “thanks to the ongoing recovery in Korea” and the November 6 launch of MapleStory: Idle RPG.
Yesterday, Nexon CEO Lee said that “it's important to assume that every gaming company is now using AI.” following ongoing criticism of its use in Arc Raiders.
“If everyone is working with the same or similar technologies, the real question becomes: how to survive? I believe it is important to choose a strategy that will improve your competitiveness,” he added.
Lee's comments follow talk of Arc Raiders' use of AI voice generation, which was criticized in Game review 2 out of 5 from Eurogamer.
