KRAFTON records profit slump for first time in two years: PUBG no longer pulling its weight
South Korean studio Krafton, creator of PUBG: Battlegrounds, announced a 26% drop in operating profit for the second quarter of 2025 to 246 billion won (~$177 million). Revenue, meanwhile, fell 6.4% to 662 billion won, which was worse than analysts' expectations.
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The results were affected by a seasonal decline in the popularity of PUBG: Battlegrounds, its main source of revenue. The recent release of social simulator inZOI, which debuted in March after initially selling more than a million copies in a week, has already lost an active audience: there are now about 4,300 users instead of the starting 87,400.
Also causing a wave of negative reactions was the shift of Subnautica 2's release from late 2025 to 2026. Ex-executives of developer Unknown Worlds sued Krafton, claiming that the publisher purposely delayed the project to avoid paying a $250 million bonus tied to revenue under the agreement. Krafton denies the allegations and says the decision was necessary to improve the quality of the game.
The company's shares fell 6.6 per cent in July amid news of the delay and lawsuits. The situation is complicated by personnel changes: after the dismissal of the founders and CEO of Unknown Worlds, Steve Papoutsis of Striking Distance was appointed CEO.
Source: Bloomberg
