NCSoft’s performance skyrockets in 3rd quarter

NCSoft has recorded performance beyond market expectations in the third quarter thanks to the popularity of mobile game Lineage, which set a new record for the largest quarterly sales. It is almost certain that the game developer’s annual sales this year will surpass two trillion won for the first time.

NCSoft announced on Tuesday that its third-quarter sales are 585.2 billion won, up 47 percent from the same period last year, based on its consolidated financial statement. Its operating profits during the same period also rose 69 percent year-on-year to 217.7 billion won.

The company’s accumulated sales and operating profits this year until the end of the third quarter are 1.85 trillion won and 668 billion won, respectively. The company’s last year sales of 1.7 trillion won were surpassed in just three quarters this year. The financial investment industry believes that NCSoft’s annual sales will certainly reach two trillion won with annual operating profits estimated to be around 800 to 900 billion won or potentially reaching one trillion won in the case of surprise outstanding performance in the fourth quarter.

NCSoft’s mobile games drove the overall sales by earning 389.6 billion won. Its most well-known massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Lineage M, attracted users with large-scale updates, recording 245.2 billion won in sales, which is 53 percent higher than the second quarter this year. Lineage M is No. 1 on the Google Play Store in terms of sales this month.

Other PC games of the developer, including Lineage, Lineage 2, and Aion, have also seen sales increases from the previous quarter. In particular, the sales of games utilizing the intellectual properties of Lineage account for 78 percent of total sales. It seems that the number of game players has increased due to the COVID-19 outbreak. “The sales growth trend will continue in the fourth quarter based on updates for existing games and new game launches.”


Gun-Huk Lee gun@donga.com