We finally have some clean numbers on how well EVE Online and Black Desert performed last year

Back in February, we were frustrated to see that Korean games company Pearl Abyss was breaking with tradition: Instead of showing revenues for Black Desert and EVE Online separately so that we can track how each game is doing, the company had begun combining the two into one generic “games” revenue. We weren’t the only people annoyed; as we noted at the time, even some investor representatives on the conference call expressed displeasure and asked Pearl Abyss to break down the numbers.

It didn’t, you might recall; all the company said what that the “breakdown was quite similar to [PA’s] last presentation numbers.” We assumed that Pearl Abyss was simply trying to hide a poor launch of Black Desert in China, as the company did allude to a slow start in the region, though it also made clear it plans to keep supporting the game there as it “settles in” with the local publisher.

Well, now fellow blogger Nosy Gamer (via EVE blogger Croda) points out that ahead of the company’s Q1 2025 results, PA has published its annual figures in Iceland (Pearl Abyss owns CCP Games, which is located in Iceland). Nosy’s take on the numbers looks correct to me, and it means we can break down the revenues by game after all. EVE Online brought in 82.1B KRW over the year; subtract its Q1/Q2/Q3 revenues and you get Q4, 22.1B KRW. Subtract that from PA’s total game revenues in Q4 – 91.1B KRW – and you get Black Desert’s own Q4 performance, roughly 60B KRW.

In other words, Black Desert and EVE Online did just fine – better than fine, as both games ended the year on a high note – and there was never any need to hide these numbers. Stop being weird, Pearl Abyss.

Croda has a few other interesting points relating to EVE Online specifically as that’s his remit; he highlights the fact that European EVE revenues are shrinking relative to American revenues, that EVE Online is seeing growth in revenues from subs and IAPs, that the sub hike cost EVE Online subs in 2022, and that CCP Games is slowly losing money for PA (in 2024, owing to costs associated with developing EVE Frontier and EVE Vanguard).