MMO readers will recall that NCsoft has been having a big year for revenue, doubling its revenue in the first quarter of this year largely thanks to the success of the mobile Lineage 2M during the pandemic. The company released its second quarter earnings today, and the numbers aren’t quite as wild, though still better than this quarter last year: The company made 538 billion KRW (around 454 million USD), down 26% since last quarter but up 31% since the second quarter of 2019. NCsoft points specifically to the ups and downs of Lineage 2M’s sales throughout the year, and indeed the sales breakdown by game demonstrates that L2M is still by far the company’s biggest revenue source, followed by Lineage M itself.
Those mobile revenues far surpass PC revenues, though PC MMORPGs are more likely what you’re here to read about. Notably, classic Lineage has continued its slow decline, we assume as players flock to mobile, though Lineage 2 is actually in a better spot than it was a year ago. While Blade & Soul has held roughly even over the last year, Aion is down around a third, seemingly NC’s weakest property now. But there’s some good news for Guild Wars 2, as its fall and winter slump appears to be over and ArenaNet is now back up to early 2019 revenue numbers. Presumbly, once Tencent has fully taken over publishing of the game in China, it might see a surge there too.
