Nexon recently issued a 2025 financial report, which showed a record increase in corporate revenue for three consecutive years. The company attributed this to the two core IPs of Underground City and Warriors, Adventure Island, and Arc Raiders, whose sales have exceeded 14 million copies.
Year-round collection:This represents an increase of 6.5 per cent over the previous year.Business profits:12.4 billion yen ($809.4 million), a slight decrease of 0.1 per cent over the same period.Net profit:This represents a decrease of 31.7 per cent over the previous year. In the fourth quarter, there was an increase of 55 per cent to 123.6 billion yen ($807.2 million) over the same year, with a profit of 7.2 billion yen ($47.2 million). According to the financial statements, operating profits were lower than expected by Nexon at the end of the year due to increased platform costs associated with the Arc Raiders performance bonus and new strong performance. Chief Executive Officer Lee Jung-hyun of Necon stated that the “search-and-search” shooting game Arc Raiders, launched by the Embark studio in October 2025, was “the largest new release in the history of Necon”. The cumulative value of the work has now exceeded 14 million and peaked at 960,000 simultaneous online players in January 2026.
The fourth quarter financial report included a one-time impairment loss of 3 billion yen and a deferred income of 27.7 billion yen from Arc Raiders. More than half of the deferred income will be recognized in the first quarter of 2026, while the refund of MapleStory: Idle RPG will be confirmed in the same period. The above-mentioned adjustments resulted in a reduction of Yen 9 billion and Yen 4 billion in the fourth quarter, respectively. The Adventure Island series grew by 43 per cent throughout the year, with the highest annual income record in 22 years, benefiting from “South Korea market warming, regional expansion and new push”. Underground Towns and Warriors achieved a double-digit increase in revenues at the PC end, but the total revenue from the series declined by 21 per cent as a result of the decline in hand-drives.
In the first quarter of 2026, Necon expects to collect between 15.5 billion and 16.4 billion yen, an increase of 32 to 44 per cent over the same period. “We are greatly encouraged by the record harvest of 2025. Arc Raiders continued to grow and participate more than 15 weeks after its sale last October. That is beyond our most optimistic expectations. Beyond the data itself, Arc Raiders is a strong demonstration of our global expansion strategy and the ability of Nexon to have creative teams, business models and real-time services that can support global distribution on a large scale.” He concluded: “Nexon has entered a new year in a more diversified, resilient and globally competitive position, taking into account our mature capacity for rejuvenation and growth at the core of IP”.
