Devsisters extended its run of operating losses into the second quarter of 2026, and there is little sign that a return to profitability will come easily. The Seoul-based mobile games developer is pinning its hopes for a third-quarter turnaround on two new releases — CookieRun: Classic and CookieRun: Crumble — but the market's verdict remains guarded.
The structural roots of persistent losses
Devsisters' difficulties are not merely a run of bad luck; they reflect a structural problem. The company derives an overwhelming share of its revenue from the CookieRun intellectual property, and CookieRun: Kingdom, the flagship title within that franchise, has been in a prolonged commercial decline. According to Mobile Index, a Korean mobile-app data platform, the game's domestic app-store ranking has slipped dozens of places from its 2022 peak and has yet to recover.
Compounding the revenue shortfall is a heavy fixed-cost base. Over recent years Devsisters has expanded its development headcount and channelled investment into new projects. Where launches have been delayed or have underperformed, that spending has not translated into commensurate earnings — producing an extended period in which costs outrun income.
The third-quarter gambit: Classic and Crumble
Devsisters is playing two cards in its bid to reverse fortunes. The first is CookieRun: Classic, a modernised reimagining of the original CookieRun, which accumulated more than 200 million downloads after its 2012 launch. The strategy is explicitly nostalgic: the company wants to recapture adult players who grew up with the game in their teens and twenties. The approach has some credibility — retro IP revivals have produced a number of success stories in the Korean mobile market in recent years.
The second card is CookieRun: Crumble, a new title that departs from the series' familiar mechanics in an attempt to broaden its audience. Devsisters plans a simultaneous global release aimed at establishing a presence in North American and European markets.
A cautious industry verdict
Game-industry analysts acknowledge the potential of both titles, but identify post-launch live-service management as the critical variable. "CookieRun still has strong brand recognition at home and abroad," notes one games analyst, "but the real test is whether Devsisters can convert initial user inflows into durable, long-term revenue through sustained live-service operations."
The third-quarter timetable itself introduces further risk. Mobile games typically require at least one or two quarters after launch before their revenue trajectory becomes clear. Given that both titles must launch and complete their initial operating phases within the same three-month window, the contribution to third-quarter results may well prove modest — and schedule slippage cannot be ruled out.
There are more optimistic readings, however. Should CookieRun: Classic generate strong user engagement during its soft-launch phase, it could improve investor sentiment and provide a catalyst for a share-price recovery. Several mid-tier Korean developers — among them Netmarble and Com2uS — have previously achieved short-term earnings improvements by reviving established IPs.
Global parallels: the promise and peril of IP recycling
IP recycling is a well-worn strategy in global gaming. Japan's DeNA found short-term success converting popular properties to mobile, but an inability to create compelling new IP ultimately constrained its longer-term growth. Finland's Supercell has sustained the CookieRun franchise's closest international analogue — Clash of Clans — through continuous updates, but that achievement rests on an exceptionally strong global community and very substantial marketing investment.
Whether Devsisters can follow Supercell's playbook with CookieRun: Classic, or whether the revival will amount to a one-off burst of nostalgic spending, will become clear from the data gathered in the weeks after launch.
Financial resilience and the sustainability question
Sustained operating losses inevitably drain cash reserves. Devsisters has drawn on its balance sheet to fund operations and investment over recent years, but the margin for error narrows with each unprofitable quarter. Some analysts in the Korean brokerage community have begun to raise the possibility that, if the third-quarter titles disappoint, the company could face the prospect of further restructuring or the need to raise fresh capital.
What the third quarter will reveal
The coming quarter amounts to more than a routine earnings period for Devsisters; it will serve as a meaningful test of the company's medium- and long-term strategic direction. If both CookieRun: Classic and Crumble deliver material results in the market, confidence in the company's vision of IP-portfolio diversification and global expansion will be reinforced. If both fall short, a fundamental reassessment of the risks inherent in dependence on a single franchise — and of the company's underlying capacity to generate profit — will be hard to avoid.
Devsisters is not alone among mid-sized Korean developers in grappling with the challenge of sustaining growth after an initial hit. How it navigates this moment may set a precedent for the broader industry. The market is waiting for the third-quarter numbers to find out whether a beloved confectionery-themed IP can finally sweeten a very bitter bottom line.