April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] NCSOFT, Korea’s biggest online game publisher, on May 10 reported strong performance in the first quarter, helped by the continued popularity of its mega-hit mobile game “Lineage M.”

Net profit came to 119.2 billion won (US$110.30 million) in the January-March period, up 585.1 percent from the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating income also skyrocketed 569.68 percent on-year to 203.9 billion won and sales jumped 98.4 percent on-year to 475.2 billion won, it said.

“Lineage M” contributed significantly to the company’s performance. Released in June last year, it remains at No. 1 on Google Play Store, and its daily sales in the first quarter ran to around 2.6 billion to 2.9 billion won.

The company attributed its strong performance in the first quarter to the launch of “Lineage M” in Taiwan in December. It has become the most popular app both in the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store in Taiwan.

By region, sales came in at 338.2 billion won in Korea, 37.5 billion won in North America and Europe, 7.5 billion won in Japan and 7.7 billion won in Taiwan.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)