Crimson Desert developer and writer Pearl Abyss has issued its newest monetary outcomes, revealing simply how a lot cash the breakout hit journey sport has made for the corporate, whereas additionally confirming plans to discover DLC.
The one-player open world fantasy motion sport has bought a massively spectacular 5 million copies since occurring sale on March 19. Korean firm Pearl Abyss reported its financials for the primary quarter of 2026, so as much as the tip of March. Which means its income figures solely embody a couple weeks of Crimson Desert gross sales.
Nonetheless, as much as the tip of March, Pearl Abyss mentioned Crimson Desert introduced in KRW 266.5 billion (approx. $178.8 million). Curiously, the gross sales break up between console and PC is roughly 50:50. Pearl Abyss additionally defined that in the case of income recognition, for console, income is acknowledged after deducting platform charges (that is the cash publishers pay Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo — usually 30% — on gross sales on their consoles), whereas PC income is acknowledged after deducting taxes from person funds. (Steam additionally takes a lower on all gross sales on its platform.) Greater than 80% of Crimson Desert’s gross sales got here from North America and Europe. Clearly, Crimson Desert was a huge hit within the west.
And it doesn’t cease there. Wanting forward, Pearl Abyss projected income from Crimson Desert for the total 12 months to come back in at KRW 644.1~734.8 billion (approx. $432.2 million~$514.4 million). Which means if Crimson Desert performs on the prime line of Pearl Abyss’ estimate for 2026, it’s going to finish the 12 months having introduced in over half a billion {dollars}.
Crimson Desert income is anticipated to “soften” within the second quarter of 2026, Pearl Abyss mentioned, as a result of preliminary gross sales are front-loaded. However the firm expects to keep up “steady efficiency,” supported by steady patches and updates (remarkably, Pearl Abyss has launched game-changing updates for Crimson Desert on an virtually weekly foundation since launch).
There’s additionally phrase of labor bills greater than doubling within the second quarter, because of the efficiency bonus cost Pearl Abyss introduced lately off the again of Crimson Desert’s success. The corporate has 1,024 staff because it stands, though it seems like that quantity will lower barely as contractors introduced in for the launch of Crimson Desert depart the corporate.
Crimson Desert followers, although, need to know what’s subsequent for the sport. Sure, the updates have improved the taking part in expertise considerably since launch, however will Pearl Abyss develop the sport with DLC or even perhaps story expansions? Reporting its financials, Pearl Abyss teased that DLC is certainly on the best way.
“New Pipelines and Progress Technique Crimson Desert will proceed to deal with enhancing person satisfaction and driving new gross sales by means of steady updates, whereas increasing its market presence by means of platform growth,” Pearl Abyss mentioned. “As well as, we’re at the moment exploring numerous methods to broaden the sport to the following degree together with DLC. We are going to share the small print as soon as the concrete plans are set.”
What might this DLC contain? Gamers have gone out of bounds and located numerous attention-grabbing components of the map with unused content material. There’s additionally a named space to the east, known as Sunbaked Peaks, that gamers are at the moment unable to achieve. Maybe a story growth might open that up.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.