Krafton Reports Record-Breaking H1 2025 Revenue, Eyes PUBG Expansion and AI Innovation Amid Subnautica 2 Dispute
- Sagar Mankar
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
South Korean game publisher Krafton Inc. has posted its strongest-ever financial results for the first half of 2025. Here are the key highlights:
Total Revenue: ₩1.54 trillion (approx. $1.1 billion), up 11.9% year-over-year
Operating Profit: ₩703.3 billion (approx. $505 million), up 9.5%
Mobile Revenue: ₩960 billion ($690 million)
PC Revenue: ₩543 billion ($390 million)
Console Revenue: ₩23 billion ($17.6 million)
PUBG, BGMI, and the Rise of inZOI
Krafton attributes much of the PC growth to PUBG: Battlegrounds, which benefited from live service updates and the new “Contender” character upgrade system introduced in April.
On the mobile front, PUBG Mobile/Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) continues to build its audience, especially in the Indian market, thanks to localized events and brand partnerships.
Adding to its roster of success stories is inZOI, a life simulation game comparable to The Sims. The title has become the fastest-selling Korean premium game to surpass 1 million units, topping charts in 27 countries. Krafton has now set its sights on developing inZOI into a long-term global franchise.
Expanding the PUBG Franchise
Krafton’s roadmap for the remainder of 2025 includes expanding the PUBG universe with multiple new projects. First up is PUBG: Blindspot, a top-down tactical shooter set to debut at Gamescom 2025 in August. Also on the way is Project Black Budget, an extraction shooter that will enter closed alpha testing later this year.
Alongside these titles, Krafton is investing in major collaborations to broaden PUBG’s appeal, including crossovers with luxury automaker Bugatti and K-pop group aespa, signaling a push into lifestyle branding similar to what Fortnite has done.
Investing in New IP and Studio Growth
As part of its five-year plan to nurture fresh intellectual properties, Krafton now has 13 new game projects in the pipeline. This includes both internal projects and externally published titles under its new Second Party Publishing (2PP) model. The first of these, Rivals Hover League by EF Games, launched its demo in late July.
Krafton is also expanding its global reach with targeted acquisitions. It acquired adtech firm Neptune in April, made a strategic investment in Japan’s ADK Group in July, and most recently purchased Eleventh Hour Games—developers of Last Epoch—for $96 million. The move solidifies Krafton’s intention to build a robust and varied game portfolio beyond PUBG.
AI Development and "Orak" Benchmark
On the technology side, Krafton introduced “Orak”, a benchmarking system designed to evaluate gameplay abilities of AI agents based on large language models (LLMs). Developed in collaboration with SK Telecom, this post-training method has already been applied to open-source LLMs and is aimed at enhancing inference and decision-making in complex games. The company sees AI as a key pillar of its mid-to-long-term strategy.
Subnautica 2 Legal Battle Raises Eyebrows
While the numbers are largely positive, Krafton’s strong financial showing comes amid internal friction—most notably, a high-profile legal dispute with the former leadership of Unknown Worlds, developers of Subnautica 2. The game's delay to 2026, along with the sudden ousting of its top developers, sparked a lawsuit over a potential $250 million earnout that the developers claim Krafton is deliberately trying to avoid.
In response, Krafton CFO Dongkeun Bae defended the delay, stating during the Q2 earnings call that it reflects the company’s commitment to quality, not mismanagement. He emphasized that the Subnautica IP has a significant fanbase, and releasing the game prematurely could have damaged both the brand and consumer trust.
Krafton’s official stance noted:
“You know, within Krafton, our milestone, the development pipeline is not being well managed. Now that there's a bit of I believe a reasoning leap or reasoning gap between those two points. I say that because the actions that we've taken on Subnautica 2 actually represent that things are effectively being managed inside Krafton when it comes to the milestone management. Subnotica IP basically has this big follower base, the fandom base. So as long as we market it and we release it into the market, people would say that there certain level of sales from this title will be guaranteed. But what we are seeking to do is we want to make sure that we satisfy the highest level of satisfaction that the gamers have for their aspiration. And so because we've managed the whole milestone process very rigorously within the company, we were able to make the decision that we made regarding Subnautica 2, and because we felt that the game was not up to par, not up to the level that we had wished it to be.”
You can watch the whole report [here].
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