Games on a train in South Korea
Categories

South Korea's online PC game market is growing — but dislodging its biggest players is impossible

South Korea’s PC online game market is expected to grow from $2.83 billion to $3.5 billion by 2018, but it won’t be easy for new entrants to dislodge the established franchises of NCsoft, Nexon, and Electronic Arts.

A report from market researcher IHS shows that South Korea now has the second-largest market for online multiplayer PC games, with China in the top spot. NCsoft’s Lineage rules the market; although the massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in 1998, it still generated $281 million in revenues last year. Like in China, Korean competitive online gaming has become so popular that it’s like a major televised sport.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.