Nexon says it’s “delivering on promises” as it posts Q1 2025 results

Maple Story publisher Nexon has released its Q1 2025-26 fiscal year earnings report, posting modest boosts in revenue and operating income.

Nexon’s three biggest franchises – Dungeon&Fighter, Maple Story, and FC – delivered an “aggregate 21% year-over-year growth”, up from 8% in Q4 2024.

The Numbers:

For the first quarter 2025

• Revenue: ¥113.9 billion ($775.9 million, up 5% year-over-year)
• Operating income: ¥41.6 billion ($283 million, up 43% year-over-year)
• Net income: ¥26.3 billion ($179 million, down 31% year-over-year)

The Highlights:

Nexon’s Dungeon&Fighter franchise delivered 60% year-over-year growth in Q1, driven by “contributions from Dungeon&Fighter Mobile in China and the global release of The First Berserker: Khazan.” In Q2, Nexon expects franchise revenue to decline by approximately 40% “due to a difficult comparison with the explosive launch of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile one year ago, which increased franchise revenue by 162%.”

While FC Online’s Q1 revenue exceeded expectations, FC Mobile fell short, pushing the franchise into a year-over-year decline, if coming in within the expected range. However, Nexon expects player “excitement” to increase as we edge closer to the 2026 World Cup.

Maple Story, however, grew revenues of 8% YoY, “primarily driven by the strong performance of MapleStory in Korea and the West,” with December’s large winter update driving “strong improvements to player engagement, resulting in a 43% year-over-year increase in Q1 revenue, which exceeded outlook.”

Shooter The First Descendant Q1 revenue “fell below” expectations due to “lower-than-anticipated sales from a new episode of Season 2, but player metrics improved,” whilst The Finals Q1 came in at the higher end of predicted performance “supported by the Season 6 update in March, which generated improvements to key player metrics.” Additional momentum is expected from new content planned for May.

A large, global tech test for ARC Raiders conducted earlier this month “significantly exceeded expectations for key metrics”, including wishlisting on Steam.

Looking ahead

Nexon expects revenue across Q2 2025 to be in the range of ¥99.6 billion to ¥110.3 billion, down 10 to 19% year-over-year.

Operating income and expected net income are also expected to fall by 50%-31% and 58%-42%, respectively, to in the range of ¥22.5 billion to ¥31.1 billion and ¥16.8 billion to ¥23.3 billion.

However, Nexon expects Maple Story to grow approximately 20% year over year next quarter.

“Nexon is delivering on its promises to our players and our investors,” said Junghun Lee, president and CEO of Nexon. “In the past three months we saw a recovery in our key titles, Dungeon&Fighter and Maple Story, and launched two new games: The First Berserker: Khazan and Mabinogi Mobile. And we are making solid progress in our partnership initiatives with Tencent, including the release of new co-developed content for Dungeon&Fighter Mobile later this year and pre-registrations on The Finals and The First Berserker: Khazan in China.

“And in another breakthrough in our global expansion strategy, Embark Studios recently completed a large test on a new game, ARC Raiders, which exceeded our expectations for YouTube and Twitch views, and beat our wishlist goal on Steam by 50%. The Embark team is now working to integrate player feedback and polish the game ahead of the launch.

“Despite global economic turmoil, Nexon is deeply resilient and positioned for sustained growth,” he added. “Our company is anchored by recurring revenue from multiple established franchises, a clearly defined growth plan, a robust pipeline of new games, strategic partnership for capturing growth opportunities in large markets, world-class live operations, and a balance sheet with approximately ¥600 billion in cash which can be used to capture new opportunities and enhance shareholder returns.”