Gaming
Krafton tops KRW 3 trillion as Pubg drives record revenue
Strong mobile growth and new titles lift the gaming giant to a record breaking year
SEOUL: Krafton has had a blockbuster year, and the numbers read like a high score screen. The South Korean game maker posted annual revenue of KRW 3.3266 trillion for 2025, a 22.8 per cent jump from the previous year and the first time the company has crossed the KRW 3 trillion mark. Operating profit stood at KRW 1.0544 trillion, comfortably above the trillion-won line once again.
At the heart of the surge was the ever reliable Pubg franchise, which continued to pull in players and profits across platforms. On PC, Pubg: Battlegrounds delivered its strongest annual performance yet, with revenue up 16 per cent year on year. Fresh collaborations with global artists, luxury brands and even Porsche kept the game’s world lively and the player base engaged.
Mobile remained the company’s biggest earner. Pubg Mobile and Battlegrounds Mobile India both expanded their paying user base, rising by 5 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. India in particular stayed a stronghold, with BGMI maintaining steady performance through localised content and brand tie ups.
New titles also chipped in. Life simulator inZOI and horror survival game Mimesis each crossed the one million sales mark after launching in March and October. Together, they added fresh momentum to Krafton’s PC business.
For the full year, revenue was split across KRW 1.7407 trillion from mobile, KRW 1.1846 trillion from PC, KRW 42.8 billion from console and KRW 358.5 billion from other businesses. The “other” segment saw a sharp rise after the consolidation of ADK Group and Neptune.
The fourth quarter told a slightly different story. Revenue reached KRW 919.7 billion, but operating profit fell to KRW 2.4 billion after a one time expense linked to a labour welfare fund for the company’s upcoming headquarters move.
Looking ahead, Krafton is betting on longer life cycles for its major franchises and a steady pipeline of new games. The company has 15 projects in development, including Subnautica 2, Palworld Mobile and several new titles built around the Pubg universe. It also plans to pursue acquisitions to secure fresh intellectual property and fuel future growth.
Artificial intelligence is another big piece of the plan. Under its “AI for Games” push, Krafton aims to use AI across development and live services, while exploring broader tech opportunities in the longer term.
For now, though, the message is simple. As long as players keep dropping into battlegrounds, Krafton’s scorecard is likely to keep climbing.
Gaming
Dream Sports sees 100 plus exits after gaming ban forces overhaul
Company splits into eight units as real money gaming law hits revenue.
MUMBAI: For a company built on fantasy leagues, reality has suddenly rewritten the rulebook. More than 100 employees have exited Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, after the company reorganised its operations following India’s ban on real money online gaming. The shake up came after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 came into force in August 2025, prohibiting games where users deposit money expecting winnings. The regulation struck at the heart of the fantasy gaming industry and dramatically affected Dream Sports’ core business, wiping out about 95 percent of its revenue and all of its profits.
In response, the Mumbai based company shifted into what chief executive officer Harsh Jain described as “startup mode”, splitting its operations into eight independent business units in December.
Around 700 employees were reassigned across these newly formed ventures based on their experience and interests. However, roughly 15 percent opted to leave the company.
A spokesperson for Dream Sports said many of those who exited were experienced professionals accustomed to running scaled businesses rather than early stage ventures.
“Since some of these employees were experienced with running high scale businesses and not startups, around 15 percent chose to leave and join other scaled companies or start ventures of their own,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the departures, the company noted that the attrition rate is only slightly higher than its earlier level of around 10 percent before the ban. Dream Sports now has close to 950 employees and is not currently hiring, choosing instead to focus on stabilising its existing workforce.
The restructuring has transformed Dream Sports from a fantasy gaming company into a broader sports entertainment platform. The eight units now operate independently, each focusing on different segments of the sports and technology ecosystem.
These include Dream11, sports streaming platform Fancode, sports travel service DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI, which includes sports analytics platform Dream Play.
Other ventures include fintech product Dream Money, open source initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic arm Dream Sports Foundation.
As part of cost saving efforts, Dream Sports also relocated its headquarters from Bandra Kurla Complex to Worli earlier this year. The new office, called Dream Sports Stadium, brings teams from its various brands together under one roof to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Jain had earlier said the company removed bonus lock in timelines for employees hired in recent years, allowing those who wished to leave to exit with pro rata payouts.
“We want people who are fully into the startup mode and willing to work for it, and we will share that reward if it comes,” he said.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports was last valued at 8 billion dollars after raising 840 million dollars in 2021 from investors including Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, D1 Capital Partners, RedBird Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, TPG and Footpath Ventures.
The new gaming law has forced several companies in the fantasy gaming sector to either shut down or pivot their business models, signalling a significant reset for one of India’s fastest growing digital entertainment industries.
