# SOOP's Profit Falls 59.9% in Q3 as Esports Ads Rise and Donations Slide > SOOP, the Korean streaming platform, reported third-quarter operating profit of 14.5 billion won, down 59.9%, as ad income rose with esports events while donations fell. - Source: https://esports.observer/soop-q3-2026-profit-falls-donations-esports-ads - Published: 2026-10-30 - Section: Business - Category: Revenue - Publisher: Esports Observer (https://esports.observer/) --- SOOP, the South Korean live-streaming platform, reported on October 30, 2026, that its operating profit for the third quarter fell 59.9% from a year earlier to 14.5 billion won. Revenue slipped 16% to 105.7 billion won, according to the figures the company disclosed that day and that Korean business outlets and The Esports Advocate reported. The results are preliminary and consolidated, meaning they include the company's subsidiaries. The numbers carry an esports story with two sides. Advertising tied to game leagues and events grew 35.4% from the second quarter, with the company pointing to events such as FC Online and the Valorant roadshow in Busan. But the money viewers send to streamers, the core of the platform's income, kept shrinking. This article walks through the figures, the reasons SOOP gave, and what the company says it will do in the fourth quarter, when its plans name ASL, the LCK and the League of Legends World Championship.
-59.9%operating profit, to 14.5 billion won
105.7B wonquarterly revenue, down 16%
+35.4%ad revenue against Q2, to 36.8 billion won

SOOP's disclosure of October 30, 2026, as reported by Asiae, BusinessWatch and Gamemeca. Changes are against the third quarter of 2025 unless marked.

## What SOOP reported for the quarter SOOP filed the third-quarter figures on Friday, October 30, 2026. The Esports Advocate described them as preliminary and unaudited. Asiae reported operating profit of 14.5 billion won, down 59.9%, on revenue of 105.7 billion won, down 16%. Net profit was 10.6 billion won, down 64%, according to both Asiae and Gamemeca. The Esports Advocate put the year-earlier operating profit at 36.3 billion won, which is the base for the 59.9% decline. Operating costs did not fall to match the lower income. BusinessWatch reported operating expenses of 91.2 billion won, up 1.7% from a year earlier. Dividing the quarter's operating profit by its revenue gives an operating margin of about 13.7%, a calculation based on the reported figures. For comparison, the Korean outlet DealSite reported an operating margin of 12.2% for the second quarter, when operating profit was 12.6 billion won on revenue of 103.8 billion won.
SOOP's third quarter of 2026Billion won, consolidated, preliminary
LineQ3 2026Change
Revenue105.7Down 16% on the year
Operating profit14.5Down 59.9% on the year
Net profit10.6Down 64% on the year
Platform revenue66.1Down 21.3% on the year
Ad revenue36.8Up 35.4% on Q2; down 5.5% on the year
Operating expenses91.2Up 1.7% on the year

Asiae and BusinessWatch, October 30, 2026. Percentages are as reported and rounded.

The second quarter had already been weak. Inven Global and DealSite, reporting on July 31, put second-quarter operating profit at 12.6 billion won, down 57.9%, and net profit at about 8.7 billion won, down 61.1%. At that time, DealSite reported, SOOP expected profitability to recover gradually from the third quarter, after most one-time costs linked to a tax investigation had been booked in the second. Third-quarter operating profit of 14.5 billion won compares with 12.6 billion won in the second quarter. ## Where the money fell: the platform line SOOP earns most of its money when viewers send gifts to streamers. The gift most often cited is the "star balloon." SOOP keeps a share of what viewers spend on such gifts. BusinessWatch explained that the platform revenue line is mostly the commission SOOP earns on those gifts, not the gross amount viewers spend. Platform revenue was 66.1 billion won, down 21.3% from a year earlier and down 10.8% from the second quarter, according to Asiae. A narrower line, donations and subscriptions, was 64.0 billion won, down 21.6% on the year, according to MTN, a Korean business outlet. The Esports Advocate gave the same 64.0 billion won figure, said it was down from 81.6 billion won a year earlier and 11.0% below the second quarter, and called it the lowest quarterly figure since the third quarter of 2023. By its count it was also 22% below the peak of 82.4 billion won in the first quarter of 2025.
Reading the lines

Two revenue lines, two different things

Outlets cited both a platform revenue line (66.1 billion won) and a donations and subscriptions line (64.0 billion won). They are different measures, so each line is best compared only with its own history.

Both lines fell by a little over a fifth against the third quarter of 2025: 21.3% for platform revenue and 21.6% for donations and subscriptions. ## Esports and advertising did the lifting Esports drove the advertising rebound. Ad revenue reached 36.8 billion won, up 35.4% from the second quarter but still 5.5% below the third quarter of 2025, according to Asiae. Within it, content-based advertising, which is ad income tied to produced shows and events, was 19.5 billion won, up 54.6% from the second quarter. Asiae said the growth was driven by esports events and game-partner showcases and pop-up events. Gamemeca reported that it came from brand campaigns around major gaming leagues and events, listing FC Online and the Valorant roadshow in Busan, along with game companies' campaigns, large projects and offline business-to-business marketing. The Esports Advocate also credited spending around major esports leagues and large events for the quarterly rise in advertising. It reported that on the earnings call SOOP pointed to growing Valorant and FC Online content and leagues in the second half of the year. Esports also helped the audience. MTN reported that SOOP said game and esports content drove the growth of its audience, including international viewers arriving through exclusive esports broadcasts. Average monthly unique visitors were about 6.62 million in the quarter, up about 2% from a year earlier, according to The Esports Advocate and MTN. The company said that more viewers did not turn into more donations, because, in the paraphrase reported by The Esports Advocate, people pay differently depending on the type of content. There is also a cost side. The Esports Advocate reported that SOOP expects costs to rise in the fourth quarter as it takes on more game-league and event production. DealSite had reported in August, citing a SOOP official, that higher production costs for esports league contracts and operations were behind part of the rise in the ratio of ad costs to ad revenue in the second quarter. BusinessWatch reported that payment fees, a line that includes broadcast rights fees, were 13.1 billion won in the third quarter, up 43.5% from a year earlier. ## What SOOP says went wrong SOOP said two things hurt platform revenue. Major streamer crews were less active, and some streamers left the platform, according to MTN and BusinessWatch. The Esports Advocate reported the same explanation and noted that SOOP named no individual streamers. The second reason, according to BusinessWatch, is that streamers now spread their broadcasts across more platforms, which makes competition for content tougher. According to MTN, co-CEO Lee Min-won said a full recovery in platform revenue is taking longer than expected. SOOP outlined its response. According to BusinessWatch, it launched an emblem system in September that certifies the cumulative activity of streamers. Since October it has run a "Partners Mentoring" program in which multichannel networks, the companies that manage groups of streamers, and partner streamers help new and returning broadcasters. BusinessWatch reported that Lee Min-won said about 20 key content partners take part and that roughly 25% of eligible partner streamers have joined, with the aim of reducing dependence on particular content. For the fourth quarter, Asiae reported that the company plans to respond to the return of top streamers and to year-end brand marketing demand, and to widen its reach through ASL, the LCK, the League of Legends World Championship, global esports and women's professional volleyball. A redesign of the service's interface is due to be shared at year-end and rolled out in phases from next year, and an integrated marketing brand called SOOPHERE, combining SOOP's and its affiliates' advertising operations, is planned for the first quarter of 2027. ## The competition and the balance sheet The Esports Advocate placed the results in the context of rival platforms. It cited Mobile Index data, relayed by the outlet Money Today, showing that Naver's CHZZK platform had 3.71 million mobile monthly active users in August against 2.33 million for SOOP. SOOP still led on viewing time in the same data, with 39.24 million hours against 34.16 million. The same article said CHZZK will add a "Challenger" tier on November 1 that will pay mid-level streamers up to 30 million won a year in production support. The Esports Advocate also drew attention to SOOP's spending on property. The Esports Advocate reported that SOOP agreed on September 4 to buy a building in Pangyo for 131.5 billion won to use as headquarters and a research and development center, and completed the purchase on September 30, funded with cash and bank borrowing. It reported that long-term loans rose to 92.9 billion won from 3.0 billion won at the end of 2025, and that cash fell to 77.1 billion won from 134.0 billion won. It put SOOP's market value at about 400.5 billion won after the October 30 close at 35,800 won a share, and said the building cost about a third of that. ## Dividends and what comes next SOOP also published its shareholder-return policy. BusinessWatch and MTN reported that the company will keep paying cash dividends of at least 25% of consolidated net profit and plans a payout that meets Korea's criteria for a high-dividend company. In September it cancelled 306,375 treasury shares, about 2.7% of the shares it has issued, according to Asiae, BusinessWatch and MTN. MTN added that a medium-term shareholder-return plan, covering remaining treasury shares and dividends, is due at the annual general meeting in March 2027. The Esports Advocate reported more detail from the dividend filing dated October 30. For 2025 SOOP paid 36.0 billion won, or 3,380 won a share, a 35% payout ratio, which the article said was more than double the 16.0 billion won paid for 2024. For 2026 the filing sets a floor of 25% of consolidated net profit. The Esports Advocate said the filing states that the target does not mean the total dividend, or the dividend per share, will be kept at or raised above the 2025 level. The article put SOOP's earnings through nine months at 41.8 billion won. The Esports Advocate listed questions it said remain open: the size of the 2026 dividend, how much of the new building SOOP will lease out, and how much of the lost donation revenue the return of top streamers will recover. The fourth-quarter plans Asiae listed include ASL, the LCK and the League of Legends World Championship, and The Esports Advocate reported that SOOP expects costs to rise as it takes on more league and event production.