Mobile Title Lineage M Dominates NCSoft Financials For Q2 2017

To be honest, the last few NCSoft financial reports haven't revealed anything all too earth-shattering. Some games are usually up a little, some games are down a little, but overall business is the same. We don't even have WildStar on the reports to make fun of any more.

The Q2 2017 report, however, provides a bit of a shocker: For the first time in nearly five years, Lineage wasn't NCSoft's #1 moneymaker. In fact, it was probably #3.

Last time, we reported that Lineage had a down quarter due in part to "weaker traffic from anticipated Lineage M demand." That anticipation turned into reality as Lineage M launched for mobile, attracting 10 million players in its first month and catapulting NCSoft's mobile revenue from 23,411 million Korean won (mKRW) to 93,722 mKRW. While that includes all of NCSoft's mobile offerings, it's probably safe to say that the bulk of that money -- about $83 million USD -- comes from Lineage M, which would make it NCSoft's #1 moneymaking game for the quarter.

Blade & Soul comes in next with 39,010 mKRW for the quarter, and then it's poor old Lineage -- which likely lost some of its players to the new and shiny Lineage M -- at 33,813 mKRW. This marks the first time since Q4 2012 that Lineage wasn't NCSoft's #1 game, when Guild Wars 2 had an astounding 119,013 mKRW quarter.

Speaking of Guild Wars 2, it's down again in Q2 2017, making this its sixth straight quarter of declining revenue, following the launch of Heart of Thorns in Q4 2015. It's probably no coincidence that the next expansion, Path of Fire, is scheduled to launch on Sept. 22, just eight days before the end of Q3 2017. That should help ArenaNet's flagging fortunes.

(Also, the chart at the top of this page does GW2 no favors, making it look like the game has lost about half its revenue over the last year. You're only supposed to use deceptive chart labeling when it supports your agenda.)

As for NCSoft's other games, Aion had a significant drop, down to 10,827 mKRW (from 13,294) and Lineage 2 slipped a little to 16,663 mKRW. You can read the full report on the NCSoft Investors Relations page.