Nexon to see record sales on The First Descendant, DnF Mobile

Gaming giant Nexon Co. is set to enjoy record sales this year thanks to the strong debut of its new title The First Descendant and the success of a mobile version of its box-office hit Dungeon & Fighter (DnF) in China.

Nexon Co. is expected to report revenue of more than 4 trillion won ($2.9 billion) for the first time in 2024, industry sources said. The South Korean-Japanese game publisher listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange said its revenue in 2023 rose 20% to 423.4 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in February.

The First Descendant topped the best-selling game list by revenue on Steam, the world’s largest PC game platform with 34 million concurrent users worldwide, as of Wednesday. The game, launched a day earlier, took first place in major markets such as the US, China, Japan and France while ranking No.2 in Korea after PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS by Krafton Inc.

The First Descendant is a looter-shooter game, a subgenre of action role-playing games (RPGs) that incorporates shooter gameplay and procedurally generated weapons and equipment.

“We have planned a looter-shooter game since 2019 to introduce a mega-hit title in the global market,” said Joo Minseok, director of The First Descendant of Nexon Games Co., a unit of Nexon Co.

The new game minimizes the pay-to-win feature, the practice of paying to get weapons, abilities, etc., that gives players an advantage over others who do not spend money. It has some items for sale for real money, but they are mainly to adorn characters, according to the developer.

Nexon Co. aims to increase users by emphasizing that they do not need to spend money on the game.

DNF MOBILE

The company has also enjoyed the success of other titles such as Dungeon & Fighter Mobile (DnF Mobile).

DnF Mobile, introduced in China on May 21 by Tencent Holding Inc., ranked No. 2 in the world’s best-selling app by revenue last month after TikTok, ahead of YouTube.

The mobile version of the arcade-type belt-scrolling action game mixed with RPG elements and an epic storyline was estimated to have already generated revenue of nearly 1 trillion won as Chinese game media GameLook reported its sales exceeded 5 billion yuan ($687.6 million) last month alone.

Such successes powered the share prices of Nexon Co. and Nexon Games. The parent’s stock price has risen 19.2% so far this year on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while the subsidiary’s share price has gained 19.5% in Korea’s tech-heavy Kosdaq market.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at deep@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.