Netmarble Games Corp., Korea’s top mobile game company, on Monday reported best-ever earnings in 2016 thanks to blockbuster hits of new releases and increased market presence overseas.

Fourth-quarter sales gained 36.4 percent on year to 469 billion won with an operating profit soaring nearly 81 percent to 118.8 billion won. For the full year, sales surged 40.3 percent on year to 1.52 trillion won ($1.34 billion). Operating profit climbed 31.1 percent to 295.4 billion won. The new revenue milestone was achieved just one year its full-year sales reached 1 trillion won in 2015 for the first time.

Nermarble’s popular mobile games like Seven Nights, Everyone’s Marble and Stone Age put up a good show outside Korea. In particular, Seven Nights created a splash in Japan. Sales from overseas rose to 51 percent in 2016, accelerating from growths of 28 percent in 2015 and 17 percent in 2014.

The mega success of Lineage 2 - Revolution was big enough to affect the four-quarter earnings even though it was launched on Dec. 14.

The mobile role-playing game based on the intellectual property of NCSOFT’s namesake PC online game raked in 100 billion won its first two weeks of global launch, which is an unprecedented achievement in the mobile game industry.

Netmarble aims to launch MMORPG versions of Seven Nights and Stone Age and IP-based games like Blade and Soul, TERA, King of Fighters and G.I. Joe. New mobile games in the pipeline include Pentastorm, Yokai, Icarus M and Destiny 6.

By Lim Sung-hyun

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