SOOP's third-quarter operating profit fell 59.9% as viewer donations dropped to their lowest level since the third quarter of 2023, even as the platform drew more visitors, according to a preliminary earnings filing with Korea's DART disclosure system on Oct. 30. The filing reports operating profit of ₩14.5 billion, down from ₩36.3 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell 16.0% to ₩105.7 billion, and net profit fell 64.0% to ₩10.6 billion. The figures have not yet been reviewed by the company's auditor.
Donations and subscriptions brought in ₩64.0 billion, down 21.6% from a year earlier. Monthly unique visitors averaged 6.62 million, up 2.0%, according to the company's third-quarter factsheet.
Co-CEO Lee Min-won told analysts that growth in game and esports content and global users drove the traffic increase. He said that "because payment behavior differs by content type, the increase in game-related traffic did not sufficiently translate into donation revenue," as reported by Dealsite in TEA's translation. Lee also said that "a full recovery in platform revenue is taking longer than expected," according to MTN.
SOOP attributed the drop to reduced activity by major streamer crews and the departure of some streamers. Neither the company nor the Korean outlets covering the call named the streamers involved.
Third-party data from Poong.today, a site that tallies star balloons from broadcast chats, shows that SOOP's 1,000 highest-earning streamers received 27% fewer balloons in the third quarter than a year earlier. Nearly 30% of that decline came from one channel, Cheolgu, according to the site's monthly rankings. Poong.today's figures are an estimate and not a company disclosure.
Advertising revenue rose 35.4% from the second quarter to ₩36.8 billion, which the company credited to spending around major esports leagues and large-scale events. It was still 5.5% below the year-earlier figure.
On Sept. 4, SOOP agreed to buy a building in Pangyo for ₩131.5 billion, according to a DART filing. The company said the purchase would be funded with its own cash and bank borrowing, and the deal closed Sept. 30. Long-term loans rose to ₩92.9 billion from ₩3.0 billion at the end of 2025, while cash and cash equivalents fell to ₩77.1 billion from ₩134.0 billion, according to the factsheet.