Krafton's booth at Gamescom in Germany, Aug. 22 / Yonhap

PUBG: Battlegrounds developer Krafton said Thursday its accumulated revenue from January to September this year has surpassed 2 trillion won ($1.44 billion), after the company posted record-high quarterly sales for the third quarter.

During an earnings call, the game studio reported 719.3 billion won in sales and an operating profit of 324.4 billion won in a consolidated basis for the third quarter. It was the highest quarterly sales in the company's history, and the figures represent 59.7 percent and 71.4 percent year-on-year increases, respectively.

With the third-quarter revenue, the company has already set a new record in its annual sales, as the accumulated revenue up to September reached 2.09 trillion won, surpassing the 2 trillion won mark for the first time in its history. The cumulative operating profit up to September also set a new high with 967 billion won.

“Various services based on the intellectual property (IP) of PUBG: Battlegrounds are showing remarkable growth in all areas, including sales and traffic,” Krafton's Chief Financial Officer Bae Dong-keun said.

“Also, our own artificial intelligence (AI) technology has reached its implementation stage to empower various pipeline services including inZOI.”

InZOI is an upcoming life simulation game using generative AI functions.

Krafton attributed the growth to the stable growth of PUBG's IP. In the third quarter, the hit title's global traffic and profitability improved further through map updates, new mode introductions and various collaborations.

For PC and console versions of PUBG, a collaboration with the Lamborghini brand in July achieved record-high sales. New map and mode updates in September resulted in 890,000 peak concurrent users, which was a new traffic record after PUBG became a free-to-play game.

On the mobile platform, sales performance continues to improve through new themed modes and efficient business model management, the company said.

To discover new IP, the company said it made a total of five investments in the third quarter, including equity investments in game developers and licensing deals. Of them, the company acquired the IP license for Palworld, a 2024 title which has gained global popularity. Currently, PUBG Studios is developing a mobile version of Palworld.

The company noted that the traffic for Battlegrounds Mobile India is showing a stable sales trajectory, with an influx of new users and new localized content.

The company is preparing several new titles, including inZOI, Dark and Darker Mobile, Subnautica 2, Project ARC and Dinkum Together. InZOI and Dark and Darker Mobile are already drawing keen attention among global games, after the company offered glimpses of those titles at Gamescom in August.