Pearl Abyss Q4 2023: Well at least EVE Online had a good financial year

Pearl Abyss, best known to MMO fans for Black Desert and CCP Games’ EVE Online, has continued its humdrum financial performance in Q4 2023, with overall revenues of 84.4B KRW ($63.5M US), down 18.1% since Q4 2022, though it stayed pretty steadily at that mark throughout the whole year (Q4 2022 was a big quarter for the company).

As we noted last quarter, Black Desert’s Land of the Morning Light launches on PC and console pulled the game (and the company) out of its Q2 slump in Q3, but the game’s Q4 revenue performance dipped again, down nearly 11% compared to Q4 2022.

EVE Online’s performance across 2023 wasn’t a blowout, but Pearl Abyss was happy to focus on it anyway as it had a good Q4 compared to the previous Q4: EVE Online ended the year up 15% in revenues compared to the same quarter in 2022. We note that EVE Online is roughly one-third the size of the Black Desert franchise by revenue alone as of Q4, but the shift in relative sales heft has ensured commensurate bump-ups in NA/EU and PC revenue too.

To investors, Pearl Abyss continued to talk up EVE Online’s blockchain fiasco Project Awakening, the potential for a Black Desert release in China and on next-gen consoles, the impending launch of mobile EVE Galaxy Conquest, last year’s CCP London office move, and ongoing development for EVE Vanguard. The long-delayed Crimson Desert will apparently get marketing efforts in Q3/Q4 of this year, but at this point, don’t hold your breath.