PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩876 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
Netmarble regained profitability with record 2025 revenue and a recovery in operating profit, but a mixed new-title record and higher costs pushed first-half 2026 operating profit lower, putting three second-half launches and a live-service overhaul to the test.
Annual results moved from operating losses in 2022-2023 to a profit in 2024, and in 2025 reached revenue of KRW 2,835.1bn and operating profit of KRW 352.5bn (12.4% margin).
Second-quarter 2026 revenue rose to KRW 749.2bn, but operating profit was only KRW 80.2bn, with the company citing higher marketing and personnel costs.
Overseas sales reached 78% of the total, with North America at 39% and Korea at 22%, extending geographic diversification.
The company sold its Guro G-Tower headquarters for KRW 697.7bn and monetized HYBE shares, sharply reducing net debt, with one-off disposal gains flowing into net income.
Cutting the second-half pipeline from five titles to three and shifting toward live-service depth is the key trade-off between earnings stability and growth.
Netmarble develops and publishes games centered on mobile while extending into PC and console, and has long run a high-volume release strategy combining in-house IP with licensed external IP.
As of the second quarter of 2026, revenue by genre was 42% RPG, 35% casual, 17% MMORPG and 6% other, indicating a diversified portfolio. Overseas revenue in the same quarter was KRW 580.8bn, or 78% of the total, with North America at 39%, Korea 22%, Europe 13%, Southeast Asia 10%, Japan 9% and other regions 7%.
Development is split between headquarters and multiple subsidiaries, and key studio Netmarble Neo developed Vampir in 2025, contributing to the earnings upturn.
Management said North American subsidiary Kabam has been preparing the AFK-genre title Project Aegis for more than two years in close cooperation with a major global IP holder.
Social-casino subsidiary SpinX, acquired in a large 2021 deal, provides an overseas revenue base, but its acquisition price has repeatedly translated into accounting impairments.
Beyond the core game business, affiliate stakes also shape reported profit: between 12 and 19 August 2026, Netmarble bought 138,500 Coway common shares on the market, lifting its stake from 26.77% to 26.96%.
Over the past three years the company booked KRW 109.8bn of dividend income and roughly KRW 300bn of equity-method valuation gains from Coway.
Competitively, it faces Nexon, NCSOFT, KRAFTON and Kakao Games at home plus global publishers competing for the same IP, talent and marketing resources, and Korea's large publishers are now required to prove both core-IP stability and new-title performance at the same time.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩717.6B | ₩101.1B | 14.1% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩696B | ₩90.9B | 13.1% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩797.6B | ₩110.8B | 13.9% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩651.7B | ₩53.1B | 8.1% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩749.2B | ₩80.2B | 10.7% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩2.7T | -₩108.7B | -₩886.4B | −4.1% | −16.2% | 58.9% |
| 2023 | ₩2.5T | -₩68.5B | -₩255.7B | −2.7% | −5.1% | 55.9% |
| 2024 | ₩2.7T | ₩215.6B | ₩25.6B | 8.1% | 0.5% | 49.4% |
| 2025 | ₩2.8T | ₩352.5B | ₩225B | 12.4% | 4.1% | 47.4% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04
The annual trajectory shows a clear reversal.
Revenue moved from KRW 2,673.4bn in 2022 and KRW 2,502.1bn in 2023 to KRW 2,663.8bn in 2024 and KRW 2,835.1bn in 2025, while operating results improved from losses of KRW 108.7bn in 2022 and KRW 68.5bn in 2023 to profits of KRW 215.6bn in 2024 (8.1% margin) and KRW 352.5bn in 2025 (12.4%).
Net profit attributable to owners also swung from minus KRW 886.4bn in 2022 and minus KRW 255.7bn in 2023 to KRW 25.6bn in 2024 and KRW 225.0bn in 2025, while operating cash flow turned from minus KRW 408.4bn in 2022 to positive KRW 337.8bn in 2025. The debt-to-equity ratio fell from 58.9% in 2022 to 47.4% in 2025.
On a quarterly basis, results peaked in the fourth quarter of 2025 at revenue of KRW 797.6bn and operating profit of KRW 110.8bn, then slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2026 to KRW 651.7bn and KRW 53.1bn (8.1% margin), before a partial recovery in the second quarter of 2026 to KRW 749.2bn and KRW 80.2bn (10.7%).
Compared with the second quarter of 2025 (revenue KRW 717.6bn, operating profit KRW 101.1bn), however, revenue rose while operating profit fell, and the company attributed the decline to higher marketing spend for the launches of Mongil: STAR DIVE and SOL: enchant plus a modest increase in personnel costs from salary raises.
The Korea Economic Daily reported in August 2026 that second-quarter operating profit fell short of the market consensus of KRW 86.1bn, as revenue from The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin decayed faster than expected and Mongil: STAR DIVE undershot expectations.
Net income has been far more volatile: profit attributable to owners was KRW 37.5bn in the third quarter of 2025, minus KRW 48.4bn in the fourth, KRW 209.7bn in the first quarter of 2026 and KRW 197.6bn in the second, and the second-quarter figure reflected a disposal gain from the G-Tower sale.
Summing the four quarters from the third quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026 gives revenue of KRW 2,894.5bn and operating profit of KRW 334.8bn, so the top line is holding up, but readers should note how much of reported net income came from asset sales and other non-operating items.
Korea's large game publishers are converging on proven IP and multi-platform releases to raise the hit rate of new titles in a mature mobile market.
Commentators note that the shared feature of 2026 pipelines is a conventional approach built on global markets plus proven IP or large open worlds, reflecting a preference for probability of success over experimentation amid rising uncertainty.
Within that trend, Netmarble is recalibrating between broadening its revenue base through frequent releases and improving cost efficiency through selectivity.
Chief Executive Kim Byung-gyu said the company had driven growth through many releases but had faced concerns over short game life cycles, and that the core second-half strategy is to keep launches tight while expanding operation of existing live games. Its most distinctive competitive feature is geographic spread.
Overseas revenue was 68% of the total in the third quarter of 2025, with North America at 34%, and that widened to 78% overseas and 39% North America in the second quarter of 2026, reducing dependence on any single market.
On the other hand, launch marketing spend and platform fees dictate margins across the sector, and Netmarble's first-half 2026 profit decline followed exactly that path.
The Japanese and North American subculture and IP-based collectible RPG markets are becoming more crowded, so polish and live-operations capability are increasingly what separate outcomes.
The core of management's disclosed second-half plan is a narrower pipeline and stronger live operations. Netmarble trimmed its second-half slate to three titles - Solo Leveling: KARMA, Shangri-La Frontier: Seven Strongest Species and Project Aegis - having previously also flagged Project Octopus and Evilbane.
Chief Executive Kim Byung-gyu cited the need for stricter launch criteria and the judgement that large resources must be deployed efficiently. On the risk that a smaller slate dents revenue, the company said planned regional expansions have either already happened or are scheduled, so the impact should be minimal.
The nearest verifiable event is the Tokyo Game Show. TGS 2026 runs from 17 to 21 September at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, and Netmarble has opened dedicated sites for Shangri-La Frontier: Seven Strongest Species, Solo Leveling: KARMA and Pearl in Blue. Pearl in Blue is in development for a 2027 commercial launch.
On the balance sheet, asset monetization continues to work through. According to Korea Ratings, net debt stood at KRW 391.6bn at the end of March 2026, down more than 75% from KRW 1,624.4bn at end-2022, while net debt to EBITDA fell from 13.1x to 1.2x.
That said, roughly KRW 200bn is earmarked for the new Gwacheon headquarters, KRW 110bn for the remaining SpinX consideration, KRW 150bn for additional Coway shares and KRW 82.8bn for treasury-share purchases tied to the Netmarble Neo share swap, so how the cash raised is deployed also warrants monitoring.
The shares trade at a discount to book value, with the price-to-book multiple remaining below one.
The earnings-based multiple sits below the upper end of the range large Korean publishers have historically commanded at the start of a new-title cycle, but that should be read alongside the fact that net income over the past four quarters includes a meaningful non-operating component, notably the G-Tower disposal gain.
In other words, the gap between underlying operating earnings power and the net-income-based multiple is wider than usual. On disclosed figures the company continues to pay a cash dividend, which is a distinguishing feature in a game sector where sustained payouts are uncommon given volatile bottom lines.
Korea Investment & Securities analyst Jung Ho-yoon cut his target price to KRW 70,000 from KRW 76,000 in an April 2026 report.
The Korea Economic Daily reported in August 2026 that, amid a round of target-price cuts, views that the headquarters sale secured financial stability coexist with concerns about slowing momentum.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-09-04
Overseas revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was KRW 580.8bn, or 78% of the total, up 22.6% year on year and 13.4% quarter on quarter.
In the third quarter of 2025 the split was 68% overseas and 34% North America, so within a year North America has risen to 39%, spreading exposure to single-country regulatory and tax changes. By genre, RPG, casual and MMORPG each carry a share of revenue, limiting reliance on any one title.
The debt-to-equity ratio fell from 58.9% in 2022 to 47.4% in 2025, and operating cash flow swung from minus KRW 408.4bn in 2022 to positive KRW 337.8bn in 2025.
In addition, the board resolved in June 2026 to sell the Guro G-Tower land and building for KRW 697.67bn, with the company continuing to occupy the property under a sale-and-leaseback arrangement for the time being.
Analysis published at the time noted net debt, once above KRW 1.6tn, had fallen below KRW 400bn while cash and equivalents approached KRW 1tn. Lower interest expense can cushion the swings inherent in hit-driven game earnings.
Solo Leveling: KARMA, under development at Netmarble Neo, is based on a webtoon IP with 14.3bn cumulative global views and will be exhibited at TGS 2026.
The earlier Solo Leveling: ARISE, launched in May 2024, generated about KRW 100bn of revenue in its first month, ranked first in downloads in 141 countries and first in revenue in 21.
The Korea Economic Daily reported in August 2026 that SOL: enchant, launched in June, was holding a top domestic revenue ranking with stable daily bookings. Whether fewer launches plus deeper live operations translate into lower earnings volatility is the point to watch.
Second-quarter 2026 revenue rose to KRW 749.2bn from KRW 717.6bn a year earlier, but operating profit fell from KRW 101.1bn to KRW 80.2bn, and first-half operating profit was also lower year on year. Operating expenses reached KRW 669.1bn in the quarter, up 8.5% year on year and 11.8% quarter on quarter.
Commentary noted that revenue from The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin decayed faster than expected while Mongil: STAR DIVE fell short of expectations. In effect, the familiar pattern repeated: marketing cash goes out first, and the revenue payoff depends on whether a title actually lands.
Net profit attributable to owners swung from minus KRW 48.4bn in the fourth quarter of 2025 to KRW 209.7bn in the first quarter of 2026 and KRW 197.6bn in the second, and the second-quarter figure reflected the G-Tower disposal gain.
The company has used its HYBE stake through exchangeable bonds and price return swaps, and the swap arranged for funding in May 2024 subsequently helped lift net income. Such items are not repeatable, creating a gap between operating earnings power and reported net profit. Once asset sales are complete, the net-income base can reset lower.
Reports indicate SpinX-related impairments occurred for three consecutive years - KRW 200.6bn in 2023 and KRW 140.6bn in 2024 on consolidated intangible assets, and KRW 124.4bn in 2025 on investment shares in the separate financial statements.
On top of that, planned outflows include roughly KRW 200bn for the new Gwacheon headquarters, KRW 110bn of remaining SpinX consideration, KRW 150bn for additional Coway shares and KRW 82.8bn of treasury-share purchases.
It is also on record that short-term borrowings rose to KRW 732.5bn at end-2025 from KRW 505.0bn at end-2024. Liquidity has improved, but committed spending has grown alongside it.
Game earnings hinge heavily on the early performance of a handful of titles. With the second-half slate cut to three, the success or failure of each individual title carries relatively greater weight in quarterly results.
Schedules can also slip repeatedly, as when SOL: enchant was pushed from April to June to raise quality. Delays move both the timing of marketing outlays and of revenue recognition.
Align Partners began buying Coway shares in 2024, raised its stake to 5.07% by March 2026 and changed its holding purpose to influencing management, arguing that shareholder returns declined after Netmarble acquired Coway and demanding higher dividends, medium-term financial targets and an internal transactions committee.
At the 2026 annual general meeting, Align's nominee won support from 50.1% of attending shareholders but did not make the final slate of appointees. The coexistence of rising affiliate stakes and shareholder-return demands can turn into a capital-allocation dispute.
With 78% of revenue from overseas and 39% from North America, currency moves, foreign platform policies and local regulatory changes feed directly into earnings.
The social-casino business is sensitive to country-by-country regulatory interpretation and to advertising and payment policy shifts, which also affects recoverable-amount estimates for acquired assets.
Competition in the Japanese and North American subculture markets is also dense, so rising marketing unit costs can pressure margins.
At TGS 2026 in Makuhari Messe, Japan, playable builds of Shangri-La Frontier: Seven Strongest Species, Solo Leveling: KARMA and Pearl in Blue will be shown. On-site reaction and pre-registration metrics are the first read on early demand for the three second-half titles.
Watch whether firm launch dates are set for Solo Leveling: KARMA, Shangri-La Frontier: Seven Strongest Species and Project Aegis. If launches slip past year-end, both revenue recognition and the quarter of marketing spend shift with them.
Third-quarter 2026 results should show both the full-quarter contribution from SOL: enchant and whether marketing spend normalizes. The direction of the quarterly operating margin - 8.1% in the first quarter of 2026 and 10.7% in the second - is the key metric.
Netmarble plans to buy 2,083,333 Coway shares in stages by April 2027 to lift its stake to around 29%, having first acquired roughly KRW 40bn worth in May and June before entering a second tranche. Progress on the purchases and the funding used are inputs for assessing capital allocation.
This is when confirmed full-year 2026 results and the dividend decision emerge, together with the company's response to Align Partners' demands for larger dividends, medium-term financial targets and an internal transactions committee. Continuity of the shareholder-return policy is the item to verify.
Netmarble's past four years can be summarized as a recovery curve from losses to profits. Revenue rose from KRW 2,673.4bn in 2022 to KRW 2,835.1bn in 2025, operating results swung from a loss of KRW 108.7bn in 2022 to a profit of KRW 352.5bn in 2025 (12.4% margin), and the debt-to-equity ratio fell from 58.9% to 47.4%.
In the first half of 2026, however, revenue grew while operating profit declined, and management attributed this to higher new-title marketing and personnel costs.
On the bottom line, non-operating contributions such as the G-Tower disposal gain were significant, so net income should be read separately from the operating trend.
Strategically, the company is shifting from high-volume releases toward expanded live-service operations and stricter launch criteria, and a revenue mix reshaped to 78% overseas and 39% North America is worth monitoring as a diversification story.
The bullish considerations are overseas growth, balance-sheet repair and cash on hand; the bearish ones are operating-profit volatility tied to uneven new-title outcomes, reliance on one-off gains in net income, and committed spending on affiliate stakes and the new headquarters. This report is for informational purposes and contains no buy or sell recommendation and no target price.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
This content is AI analysis of market data and web search results, provided for information only. It is not a solicitation or recommendation to invest. Investment decisions and their consequences are the investor's own responsibility. Data may be delayed or contain errors.