The company's market cap rose sharply to over 5 trillion won.

The game will be officially launched worldwide Thursday.

China's Tencent Holdings Ltd. is set to launch the game's Chinese mobile and PC versions.

"Battlegrounds' success has revitalized the local online game market which had been experiencing a lull recently," an industry source said. "We expect more success stories in mobile games and e-sports next year."

With the growing popularity of their games, South Korea's major mobile game companies posted record sales this year.

Netmarble Games posted 1.8 trillion won in sales of Lineage 2: Revolution for the first nine months this year.

The mobile role-playing game received Google Play's Best Game of 2017 award in South Korea last month.

South Korea's No. 1 mobile game developer and publisher said Lineage 2: Revolution, a mobile MMORPG game licensed by NCSoft and developed by Netmarble, got similar awards in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Another Netmarble mobile game, Penta Storm for Kakao, received the best live competitive mobile game award by Google Play.

Lineage 2: Revolution became the top-grossing app in Apple's App Store in South Korea and the five other countries in just eight days after its debut in June. It also debuted in Japan in August and 54 North American and European countries in November.

Netmarble's revenue from overseas markets accounted for 71 percent of total sales during the July-September, buttressed by the growing popularity of Lineage 2: Revolution abroad, a company official said. He added that the game has generated about half of Netmarble's total revenue for the past few months.

NCsoft Corp., meanwhile, posted a record 1.2 trillion won in sales for the January-September period. It is the first time the company recorded sales exceeding 1 trillion won since its launch in 1997.

The strong performance was based on the continued popularity of Lineage M, the mobile version of NCsoft's mega-hit game Lineage. The new Lineage M features a very high degree of visual resolution, yet brings back the classic feel of Lineage.

Players can create a character by choosing from a variety of classes and titles, and can make a team with other players and slay monstrous opponents in various environments.

Lineage M is available to users in Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong through the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store, NCsoft Corp. said, adding it will also launch the game in Japan early next year.

Nexon Korea Co., South Korea's longtime online gaming giant, also posted 1.8 trillion won in sales during the first three quarters this year. It compares to 1.9 trillion won in sales for the whole last year.

Nexon's strong performance was backed by the popularity of Alliance x Empire, also known as AxE, centering on large-scale battles between two factions and featuring a fully three-dimensional world where players can hunt down and battle each other.

The multiplayer online game developed by Nexon's subsidiary NEXON RED is available on both Android and iOS in South Korea and has become the most downloaded game.

Related to headways made, many industry watchers are predicting good times for the South Korean online game industry in the new year.

"The country's mobile industry has witnessed the fruition of previous efforts this year at home and abroad despite the adverse impact of China's economic retaliation over THAAD," an industry source said.

Netmarble and NCsoft applied for the introduction of new games in China early this year but the Chinese government's approval has not yet been issued, sources said. Local companies have expressed concerns that fake products are prevailing in China. Some have said they are considering a move to file copyright violation complaints with Chinese courts. (Yonhap)