KRAFTON Invests in 125 Companies and Funds, NCSOFT and Netmarble Combined Don't Even Reach Half

By acquiring US and Indian game companies through fund investments and direct acquisitions, KRAFTON has expanded its footprint from a game developer to a large-scale game investor.

KRAFTON, which grew big on Battlegrounds alone, is the one that invests most widely in other game companies among Korea's Big 3 game companies. Based on the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure (DART), there are 125 corporations in which KRAFTON has invested equity or holds as subsidiaries, and even if NCSOFT (26 locations) and Netmarble (18 locations) are combined, it falls short of half of that.

Cross-referencing these 125 companies with the global corporate registry database OpenCorporates confirms game studios in California, US, investment and holding companies in Delaware, and game companies in India. This approach resembles Tencent, which has grown into a game investment holding company, in that it utilizes both fund investments and direct acquisitions. Although the scale is far smaller than Tencent's, the structure of expanding influence by redirecting money earned from games into stakes in game companies is the same.

Corporations are Concentrated in the US, while Investments Expand to India

Among KRAFTON's corporate holdings confirmed through OpenCorporates, overseas game companies stand out. Representative examples include US California studios such as Striking Distance Studios of the cold war shooting game 'The Callisto Protocol', and Unknown Worlds of the survival game 'Subnautica'. Out of the total 125 investment destinations, 35 have confirmed overseas registrations, and among those, 18 are registered in Delaware, US, with the majority being venture funds. Delaware is a region where US holding, investment, and fund corporations are concentrated due to tax and corporate procedural advantages.

The proportion in India is also not small. There are 6 Indian corporations confirmed by registry, including the esports company NODWIN Gaming, digital entertainment company JetSynthesys, and game company Deftouch. In March 2025, KRAFTON acquired a controlling stake (over 75%) in Nautilus Mobile, the creator of the Indian cricket game 'Real Cricket', for approximately 14 million dollars (₹118 crore, around the 20 billion won range), and is known to be pursuing an additional investment in the 500 billion won range into the Indian game market. This is interpreted as an attempt to expand the Indian success of PUBG Mobile to the overall local game industry.

NCSOFT is Funds, Netmarble is Direct Acquisitions, and KRAFTON is Both

It is not uncommon in itself for a game company to invest in another game company. Microsoft bought Activision for 69 billion dollars. So, are KRAFTON's 125 companies also at the industry average level? Calculated by the same standard, NCSOFT has 26 companies and Netmarble has 18 companies — KRAFTON has 5 times that of NCSOFT and 7 times that of Netmarble.

Source: DART Electronic Disclosure's Status of Investment in Other Corporations and Status of Subsidiaries (As of April 2026). Total domestic and overseas investment destinations. 'Fund Type' refers to venture fund LP investments classified based on the corporate name (Fund, L.P., Venture, etc.).

It is not just the scale that is different; the investment methods also diverge. For NCSOFT, 15 out of 26 investment destinations (58%) are venture fund LP investments. It injects capital into game and technology funds such as Vertex Ventures, ACME Fund, Translink, and Lumikai Fund, leaving the management to external parties, while its directly held operating companies stand at just 11. Netmarble is the opposite. Out of 18 destinations, 15 are operating companies and only 3 are funds, directly holding acquired game companies such as Jam City, Kabam, and SpinX as subsidiaries.

KRAFTON utilizes both methods, and on a massive scale at that. Its 37 fund-type destinations are more than the funds of NCSOFT and Netmarble combined, and its 88 operating company-type destinations are more than triple the two companies combined (11 and 15 destinations). However, these 88 destinations are not all directly acquired studios. Minority stakes and corporations for holding or investment purposes are also mixed in. It is a two-pronged strategy of broadly surveying the market with funds while directly acquiring promising studios; the Delaware funds and California studios confirmed earlier in the overseas registries correspond to these two branches, respectively.

Investments are the Widest, but Revenue is in One Game

Such extensive investments are backed by its performance. KRAFTON's Q1 2026 revenue was 1.3714 trillion won, marking its highest quarterly performance ever. Although other revenues increased due to the acquisition of the Japanese ADK Group, just looking at the revenue from its flagship IP, the PUBG (Battlegrounds) franchise, it grew 24% year-on-year to exceed 1 trillion won for the quarter. In the same year, KRAFTON introduced cash dividends for the first time since its founding, deciding to return over 1 trillion won (300 billion won in dividends + 700 billion won in cancellation of treasury stock) to shareholders over three years from 2026 to 2028.

The vast majority of KRAFTON's revenue still comes from a single game, Battlegrounds. Investing the money earned by that game into 125 other game companies and funds appears to be aimed at reducing its reliance on that one game.

This article was written by News Epoch by securing and analyzing the Status of Investment in Other Corporations and Status of Subsidiaries from the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure (DART), along with the global corporate registry database OpenCorporates, using The Proxy collection pipeline.

The number of invested corporations was calculated based on DART's Status of Investment in Other Corporations and Status of Subsidiaries (total domestic and overseas), and 'Fund Type' was classified based on the corporate name (Fund, L.P., Venture, etc.). The location and corporate nature were cross-checked with OpenCorporates corporate registries, and among the 125 destinations, 35 have confirmed overseas registries. Performance, shareholder returns, and acquisition amounts followed KRAFTON's disclosures and domestic and international news reports. Data baseline: Collected from DART in April 2026, reconfirmed from OpenCorporates in June 2026.