Netmarble generated $2.5 billion in revenue in 2021

gamesindustry.biz:

Danielle Partis

News Editor

Friday 25th February 2022

Netmarble

At a glance:

Korean mobile outfit Netmarble has reported its full-year and fourth quarter earnings for the period ended December 31, 2021.

For the last three months, the company reported revenues of KRW 751 billion ($656 million), a 20% increase on the same period last year.

Net profit for the quarter was KRW 107 billion ($89 million), a 200% rise on Q3 and a 4.2% year-over-year increase. Operating profit also saw a 30% increase to KRW 58 billion ($8.2 million) compared to last year.

The company cited the global November launch of Seven Knights 2 in as a main driver for revenue, as well as the recognition of revenue from new subsidiary SpinX games, which Netmarble acquired in August 2021. Marvel: Contest of Champions was a consistent revenue driver for Q4, representing 12% of all sales for the quarter.

Broken down by region, 78% of Q4 revenue came from overseas. North America accounted for 43%, Europe for 11%, Southeast Asia for 10%, and Japan for 9%. The remaining 5% came from "others", and Korea represented the 22% not marked as overseas.

For the full year, Netmarble generated KRW 2.5 billion ($2.1 billion), a 0.8% increase on last year. 73% of all revenue was generated overseas, with the remaining 27% from Korea.

Over the last three years, the firm's revenue split has been slowly edging more towards overseas sales; the percentage moved from 67% in 2019 to 72% in 2020.

While revenues were up slightly, EBITDA was down 30% year-over-year to KRW 306 billion ($254 million). Netmarble cited increased labour costs -- including salary increases and developer additions -- for the decrease. The acquisition of SpinX also affected EBITDA in Q4.

Looking ahead, Netmarble is