Japanese games company Nexon brought in record-breaking revenue during its fourth quarter
For the three months ending December 31 2022, the Japanese games firm reported revenue of ¥81.1 billion ($618 million), an increase of 49% year-on-year. It attributed this strong growth to a variety of games including Dungeon and Fighter Mobile in particular.
Korea
Nexon's Korean revenue was up 62% for the quarter, rising to a record-breaking ¥51 billion ($3.89 billion). Nexon noted its business tactics for Dungeon and Fighter Mobile in Q4 where – after it was named “Game of the Year” at The Korean Game awards – they significantly lowered monetisation. The move increased users but they did note that this showed lower revenue overall than they expected as a result.
By securing a large uptick in users, Nexon is likely hoping that it will be able to leverage this into greater revenue down the line. Whether that would be by increasing monetisation and hoping to retain more of this new audience or introducing new means of doing so is yet to be seen.
Japan & China
In Japan Nexon saw a 14% increase of revenue year-on-year thanks to the performance of their titles Blue Archive and TalesWeaver: SecondRun, despite lower revenue from FIFA Mobile, Traha and V4. China meanwhile saw extremely strong growth for Dungeon and Fighter with a 55% increase in revenue year-on-year as a result. This is a significant change from its previous quarter’s financials which were more muted. Dungeon and Fighter Mobile began life as a PC title and the move to mobile and subsequent success would indicate the potential for strong future growth of an original intellectual property.
Worldwide
North-America and Europe saw a six per-cent decrease in revenue, due to declining contributions from Choices and Blue Archive. However, the rest of the world saw a 25% year-on-year revenue increase for Nexon, mainly attributed to the MapleStory IP.
Full-year
Nexon reported overall record-breaking revenue for 2022, fuelled by their major franchises and an expansion into their Virtual Worlds pursuits. Revenue rose by 29% to a total of ¥353.7 billion ($51bn) and mobile revenue specifically grew by 41%.
Overall a very strong year for Nexon, in defiance of other more muted financials coming from companies such as Krafton which have struggled to maintain growth.
