Krafton buys Nautilus to dominate cricket gaming

Krafton, the South Korean gaming giant, acquired a controlling stake in Nautilus Mobile for $14 million in an all-cash deal.

The deets: Nautilus builds cricket-based mobile games like Real Cricket 24 and Real Cricket Premier League. Krafton is best known for its blockbuster titles, PUBG: Battlegrounds and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which have gained massive popularity worldwide.

The new plan: with cricket holding a special place in the hearts of millions of Indians, Krafton sees this acquisition as an opportunity to move beyond BGMI and explore new genres that appeal to Indian gamers. It plans to scale Nautilus’ titles globally too and bring the firepower to take the franchise beyond India.

Worth noting: this isn’t Krafton’s first swing. It invested $5.4 million in Nautilus back in 2022 and is now going all in.

Krafton’s net profit jumped 119% YoY to ~$889 million in 2024. BGMI alone crossed 200 million downloads in India and hit record sales last year.

Zoom out: mobile games now make up nearly 78% of India’s gaming revenue, with the market projected to hit $1.1 billion by 2028.