By Sagar V. Mankar 
South Korean game developer/publisher Krafton has continuously expanded its global reach over the past few years. Its game, PUBG: Battlegrounds drawing over 700k concurrent users daily on Steam even after six years of release, its localized version, BGMI, is the biggest game in India with over 200 million downloads and with promising titles like inZoi in the pipeline, the company has set an ambitious global growth strategy. Recently, CEO Kim told Bloomberg that the company plans to invest over ₩200 billion ($136 million) in 2025, focusing on more than a dozen game studios worldwide.
He stated that Krafton has evaluated over 1000 global over the past years, making notable $680 million investment in minority stakes across various gaming developers. Some of the company’s most notable deals include:
- Acquiring Tango Gameworks.
- Partnering with Pocketpair to develop Palworld Mobile.
- Collaborating with Ironmace for Dark and Darker Mobile.
- Investments in international studios such as EF Games (Madrid), Ruckus Games (Texas), Wolf Haus Games (Montreal), and Day 4 Night Studios (U.S.).
In its financial report for Q3 of FY2024, it revealed that they have accelerated in investment, with 13 studios added to its portfolio in the first three quarters of 2024—up from 11 in 2023 and just five in 2022.
Krafton basically aims at creating new intellectual properties (IPs) with franchise potential, generating annual values of $1 billion. Through efficient mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and first-party production, they want to achieve this ambitious goal.
Pioneering AI Technology in Gaming
Krafton is also at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. Since 2021, it has invested over ₩1 trillion ($680.8 million) to advance its AI capabilities, assembling a team of 80 engineers with plans to add 35 more by 2025.
At CES 2024, Krafton demonstrated its Co-Playable Character (CPC) model developed using Nvidia technology. This innovation allows non-player characters (NPCs) to engage dynamically with players, enhancing gameplay in real-time. The CPC model will debut in inZOI in 2025 and later feature in the PUBG series.
Focus on India
India remains a vital market for Krafton. They have actively expanded in India, taking direct control of PUBG Mobile’s distribution (now BGMI) after a government ban on the Tencent-distributed version. By 2023, the game returned to the Indian market, supported by Krafton’s dedicated local team of over 100 staff members. It has committed over $150 million to the Indian gaming sector and introduced the KIGI program to support local developers.
Financial Success
Krafton’s financial performance reflects its aggressive growth strategy. Shares have surged more than 70% since the beginning of 2024, and the company recorded nearly ₩2.1 trillion ($1.4 billion) in revenue between January and October 2024.
The publisher, which generates most of its income from international markets, achieved an impressive 45% operating margin in the third quarter of 2024.