KRAFTON, the South Korean developer and publisher of titles such as PUBG: Battlegrounds and its various mobile versions, reported record revenues and operating profits for the first half of the current year in its latest earnings report.

The company reported revenue of KRW 1.3729 trillion, or just over USD 1 billion, up 48.3% year-on-year. Operating profit rose an impressive 55% year-on-year to KRW 642.6 billion, or USD 470.3 million.

The first quarter contributed the most to the strong six-month period, but it’s worth noting that KRAFTON’s mobile revenue actually increased in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, even though everything else saw the usual second-quarter decline.

KRAFTON attributed the growth to the strong performance of PUBG in all its variants. In the report, the company revealed that PUBG’s monthly active users on PC and consoles increased by around 40% year-on-year, with the number of users making in-game purchases doubling – well, more than doubling: This key metric increased by 130%. It looks like the developer’s various in-game collaborations with popular brands are hitting the jackpot.

PUBG Mobile has seen a more modest increase, with daily active users up 30% and paying users up 40%. However, given the already large player base on mobile, the impact of these growth spurts is easy to see when looking at overall revenue.

In addition to continuing its winning formula with PUBG, KRAFTON is planning two brand new games for the second half of 2024: Dark and Darker Mobile, an extraction RPG, and its life simulation inZOI.

The South Korean company recently announced the acquisition of Tango Gameworks, the developer of Hi-Fi Rush, which was unexpectedly shut down by Microsoft earlier this year. Tango is KRAFTON’s first studio in Japan and marks the next step in its expansion plan. The purchase of the Hi-Fi Rush IP fits well with the company’s ambitions to secure other valuable properties.

In addition to acquiring or creating new intellectual properties to increase company value, PUBG’s intellectual properties are at the heart of all growth plans – KRAFTON aims to develop “new PUBG intellectual properties in different genres and for different platforms” that have “synergies with the core product” and can “reach fans around the world”, with “new generations and teenage audiences” as a particularly important target group.