Nexon achieved its highest quarterly performance ever thanks to the global expansion of its core IP and the success of new blockbusters.
Nexon (CEO Lee Jeong-heon) announced its consolidated performance for the first quarter of 2026 through a public announcement on the 14th. This performance is interpreted as the result of a sharp increase in sales in overseas markets such as North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, due to the robustness of the existing ‘Maple Story’ franchise and the growth of the new game ‘ARC Raiders’.
First, the Maple Story franchise recorded a growth rate of 42% compared to the same period last year. The idle game ‘Growing Maple’ and the user-generated content platform ‘Maple Story World’, which were launched globally last year, played a significant role. In particular, ‘Maple Story World’ grew by 79% due to the update effect of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, and ‘Maple Story’, the flagship store in the West, also grew by 8%, contributing to global expansion.
Arc Raiders, launched in October last year, has proven to be Nexon's next-generation growth engine. It sold an additional 4.6 million copies in the first quarter alone, surpassing 16 million copies in cumulative sales just 6 months after its release. In particular, it is said to have captured both criticism and box office success by winning five global awards, including the British BAFTA Game Awards 2026. Thanks to these achievements, Nexon's sales in North America and Europe more than quadrupled compared to the previous year, and overall overseas sales surged 59%, breaking an all-time high.
Traditional strong players also supported their performance. The ‘FC’ franchise continued its strong trend with large-scale events during the Lunar New Year holiday, and the PC version of China’s ‘Dungeon & Fighter’ also showed a clear recovery, recording double-digit growth rates due to the effects of the Lunar New Year update.
Nexon has also significantly strengthened its global partnerships to provide stable services. Following the signing of a long-term publishing contract with EA for the ‘FC’ franchise in Korea, the company decided to extend the PC ‘Dungeon & Fighter’ service in China for 10 years with Tencent. In addition, we are accelerating platform diversification by collaborating with Blizzard to confirm the Korean service of the PC version of the global hit ‘Overwatch’ within the year.
The lineup for the second half of the year is also rich. The global launch of ‘Mabinogi Mobile’ and ‘Growing Dungeon & Fighter’ being developed by Nexon Games are pending, and new publishing titles such as ‘Azur Promilia’ and ‘Project T’ are also scheduled to be introduced. In the mid- to long-term, we will focus on developing new games that will increase the competitiveness of our own IP, such as ‘Dungeon & Fighter Classic’, ‘Paradise: LAST PARADISE’, and ‘Durango World’.
Lee Jeong-heon, CEO of Nexon Japan, said, "The global success of Maple Story and Ark Raiders served as the foundation for our outstanding performance this quarter. We will secure mid- to long-term growth engines through strategic partnerships and a solid lineup of new games, and further strengthen our global competitiveness."
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