Smilegate (2002)
Creators of Crossfire and Lost Ark: A Billion-Player Gaming Powerhouse
Founded in 2002 by Kwon Hyuk-bin, Smilegate is one of South Korea's most successful video game creators, celebrated for Crossfire—one of the most played first-person shooters in human history with over 1 billion registered accounts—and the acclaimed cinematic MMORPG Lost Ark.
Crossfire and the Asian Esports Supremacy
Partnering with Tencent in 2007, Smilegate brought its tactical shooter Crossfire to China and emerging markets. Thanks to accessible hardware requirements and tight competitive gunplay, Crossfire achieved over 8 million peak concurrent players and generated over $12 billion in revenue, cementing Smilegate's founder among Asia's wealthiest tech entrepreneurs.
Lost Ark and Global Western Breakthrough
Through its subsidiary Smilegate RPG, the company developed the cinematic isometric MMORPG Lost Ark. When launched in the West via Amazon Games in February 2022, Lost Ark surged to 1.32 million concurrent players on Steam, becoming the second most-played game in the platform's history at that time.