Krafton announce record-breaking revenue thanks to PUBG

Krafton just revealed an incredible year thanks to PUBG. In its recent earnings report, the South Korea-based video game publisher announced record earnings since the game’s release. PUBG was undoubtedly a massive hit during its release back in 2017 and help boost the popularity of the battle royale genre.

Despite launching almost a decade ago, PUBG remains on top of Steam's concurrent player count, which is an achievement. Even now, the game competes with other popular battle royale games and pulls in over half a million players every day on the platform and the game is available on consoles too.

As per the earnings report, Krafton made KRW 2.7 trillion or $1.8 billion in revenue, a 41.8% YoY Growth and record revenue for the company. Operating profit was KRW 1.2 trillion or over $800 million, 54.0% YoY Growth. The 5-year CAGR was 20%, all thanks to the PUBG IP. Even Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) also saw a 35% increase in sales.

Krafton to challenge EA with inZoi

This year, Krafton is set to release a game in a completely new IP. inZoi, a life simulation game will compete with The Sims by Electronic Arts. The game makes some big promises about what players will be able to do in the game and is also a huge upgrade in terms of visuals.

There’s some heavy character customization and from the recent release of Infinity Nikki, a lot of people love cozy games with deep customization. If done correctly, this could be the new big thing for Krafton and one of the biggest launches this year. The game is set to release on March 28 across consoles and PC.

Also Read:Head of Krafton’s Gaming Incubator believes India can become global competitor game development

Why is PUBG so popular?

It's no secret that PUBG brought battle royale games to the mainstream and while the older games usually become dated, PUBG thrived. This was largely thanks to its gameplay loop that forced players to make do with what weapon they got and quickly adapt to community needs.

The game went free to play as the competition increased brought new players and recently added a new subscription like Fortnite. In between all this, the developers also listened to community needs and properly acknowledged everyone, something that most live-service games don’t.