Stellar Blade Developer SHIFT UP Led Korean Industry with Average Employee Salaries of 130 Million Won

SHIFT UP, the creative minds behind hit games “Stellar Blade” and “Goddess of Victory: Nikke,” is giving its employees plenty of reasons to celebrate. The game developer topped the Korean gaming industry with average salaries hitting a whopping 130 million won last year, making it the leader in what some are calling the “1 billion won salary club.”

Business reports filed with the Financial Supervisory Service (and reported by ChosunBiz on March 27th) show SHIFT UP comfortably outpacing its competitors when it comes to paying its talent.

So what’s behind these impressive paychecks? Simply put: their games are killing it. SHIFT UP racked up revenue of 219.9 billion won and operating profits of 148.6 billion won last year, growing by 30.4% and 33.8% respectively. In July 2024, they went public and raised 435 billion won ($320 million). This was the largest gaming IPO in South Korea in over two years. These stellar financial results allowed the company to reward employees with substantial compensation packages.

Meanwhile, KRAFTON achieved even more impressive results, with revenue of 2.7098 trillion won and operating profits of 1.1825 trillion won – increases of 41.8% and 54.0% that set new company records.

Here’s how the major Korean gaming companies stack up in terms of average employee salaries:

• SHIFT UP: 130 million won
• KRAFTON: 109 million won (up 11.2% from previous year)
• NCSOFT: 108 million won (slight 0.9% increase)
• NEXON GAMES: 94.8 million won (up 1.3%)
• Kakao Games: 88 million won (down 10.2%)
• Wemade: 83 million won (down 9.7%)
• Com2uS: 82 million won (up 1.2%)
• NEOWIZ: 82 million won (down 2.3%)
• Netmarble: 77 million won (up 2.6%)
• Devsisters: 66 million won (down 20.4%)

While NCSOFT managed to keep average salaries above 100 million won, the company struggled financially last year, posting revenue of 1.5781 trillion won but suffering an operating loss of 109.2 billion won. Without new hit titles and facing declining revenues from existing games like Lineage W and M, the company also reduced its workforce by 1,191 employees through voluntary resignation and early retirement programs.

Devsisters, known for the Cookie Run series, took the biggest hit with a 20.4% salary drop, though a company rep explained this was related to “compensation payments for voluntary retirement” and should normalize soon.

Kakao Games has an interesting backstory too. After going public in 2020, they briefly held the crown for highest salaries (138 million won) thanks to employees cashing in valuable stock options. But with share prices dropping and profits shrinking, those days are long gone.