After losing money in the year 2022, Larian made a staggering $260 million in 2023.

The Irish Independent (users will encounter a paywall), reported that Larian had posted a EUR249million pre-tax profit in 2023. That's about $260million freedom dollary-doos to those of us who don't have adequate digital privacy protections. Larian's revenue nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023 due to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3.

The figures were published by Larian's Dublin holding company. The Independent reports that Larian's revenue is managed by its Dublin office. This office also houses a large part of the studio’s writing staff. Irish tax laws are favorable, and many corporations have chosen to base their European or global headquarters in Ireland.

Larian's total revenue was EUR427m ($446m) last year. The Independent reported that 15 million copies of Baldur's Gate 3 were sold, though Larian has not released exact sales figures. SteamSpy estimated that 20 million people owned the game on Steam only in December of last year. Larian Publishing Director Michael Douse said that Baldur's Gate 3 had "way over" ten million players by February of this year. Hasbro, the owner of Dungeons & Dragons, took home a tidy $90,000,000 in revenue from Baldur's Gate 3 for its part.

Larian had a quiet year in 2022, reporting a total revenue of EUR22.7m ($24m), but operating at a loss of EUR214,000 ($223,000). This is a stark reminder of the volatile nature of the game-making business. Developers have to spend a lot of money over time, before they (hopefully), make it up and then some.

Swen Vincke, Larian employees and Gameumentary's 2018 Divinity: Original Sin documentary spoke extensively about their wilderness years as an independent RPG in the 2000s. Larian suffered layoffs, contracted educational games and went through several lean years before Original Sin 1's success on Kickstarter and the sales.

But those days are gone. Larian is building a substantial war chest to fund the development of two RPG projects that will be announced in the future. It is also an independent studio and the largest in the industry. Valve may be the only comparable example. Tencent is a minority shareholder and major investor in the company. However, Swen Vincke, founder of Baldur's Gate 3 and director of the studio is still its owner and CEO.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier credited Larian for its continued success in the face the layoff crisis, citing the company's independence, and Vincke as the company's leader. Without the competing incentives imposed on a publicly traded firm's many shareholders by the many shareholders of the company, Larian and Vincke are left with the main financial constraint of making payroll and not increasing the line.

Baldur's Gate 3 is seeing more users every day than last year. After a lifetime of accustomed to my favorite hardcore CRPGs failing to sell well and their developers going bankrupt, my crusty Grinchlike heart grew three sizes when I saw Larian win W after W.